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MISS OAEBOLL'S 



CLAIM BEFORE CONGRESS 

ASKING 

COMPENSATION FOR MILITARY AND OTHER SER- 
VICES IN CONNECTION WITH THE CIVIL WAR. 

■ *~**-* 

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United Slates in Congress assembled: 

The memorialist, Anna Ella Carroll, respectfully repre- 
sents that, as stated in her memorial heretofore submitted 
to Congress, she rendered important and valuable military 
services in the civil war, and especially that she devised the 
Tennessee campaign of 1862. 

At the time she suggested this change of campaign, the 
military topography of the revolted States was very imper- 
fectly understood, and it was therefore not surprising that 
the military operations for the suppression of the rebellion 
had not met the expectations of the country. The tide of 
battle thus far had been steadily against the Union, The 
enemy was arrayed in strong force on the Potomac, and on 
a line extending from thence westward through Bowling 
Green to Columbus, on the Mississippi, To him time was 
power, and every day's delay a continuous victory, while it 
increased the difficulties which were gathering and clc:irg 
around the National cause. 

More i han seven months had been consumed since the war 
commenced, and it had already aggregated a debt of some 
$500,000,000. An army numbering between seven and 
eight hundred thousand men had taken the field and 



2 

$2,000,000 scarcely sufficed for its daily expenditure, beside 
every day was a sacrifice of hundreds of lives. 

The North had become restive, and the credit of the Gov- 
ernment was virtually exhausted. At the same time Eng- 
land and France were preparing and anxious to terminate the 
conflict by intervening, and making good the independence 
of the South. 

Unless their unquestioned military advantage could be 
gained in the next few months that would satisfy the coun- 
try and convince Europe of the ability of the Government to 
conquer the rebellion, all hope of restoring the Union was 
gone. How could this military advantage over the rebel- 
lion be gained in time, was then the momentous question 
which pressed upon every loyal heart connected with the 
Government. 

The Army of the Potomac, on which the country had 
relied for success, could not, in the opinion of its comman- 
der, safely advance until the Army of the West had engaged 
the enemy in that quarter, and the Secretary of War, with 
the Adjutant General, after a tour of inspection in Octobe 
1861, reported that in the judgment of the commanders the 
forces in Kentucky and Missouri were not strong enough to 
make an advance. The President was painfully apprehen- 
sive that this decisive advantage could not be gained in . 
time. 

In this crisis your memorialist perceived and pointed out 
to the Government how this success could be obtained in 
time. 

Being convinced after careful inquiry that the Mississippi 
expedition, howsoever strong, could not open that river upon 
its waters, except at a C03t, perhaps, of years and a corres- 
ponding sacrifice of life and treasure, she turned her 
attention to other lines of invasion and found the Tennessee 
river afforded sufficient depth of water for the gunboats to 
the Muscle Shoals in Alabama, but a few miles from the 
Memphis and Charleston railroad — the enemy's only com- 
plete interior line of communication — your memorialist 



s 

comprehended that the movement of a strong force up 
that river to a position in command of that railroad, would 
effectually cut the confederacy in two by severing the At- 
lantic from the Missippi portion — turn Columbus and all the 
the fortifications on the Mississippi to Memphis — free all 
Western Kentucky and Tennessee from the enemy, and bring 
the whole of that country southward to Mobile under the con- 
trol of the national arms. And she indicated as the posi- 
tion, Hamburg on the west bank of the Tennessee river, 
which, it will be observed, is but two or three miles from 
Pittsburg Landing. These suggestions she embodied in 
the following paper and submitted it to the Government the 
30th of November, 18dl : 

The civil and military authorities seem to bo laboring 
under a great mistake in regard to the true key of the war 
in the Southwest. It is vot the Mississippi but Ihe, Tennessee 
river. All the military preparations made in the West indi- 
cate that the Mississippi river is the point to which the 
authorities are directing their attention. On that river many 
battles must be fought and heavy risks incurred before any 
impression can be made on the enemy, all of which could 
be avoided by using the Tennessee river. This river is navi- 
gable for middle class boats to the foot of the Muscle Shoals 
iii Alabama, and is open to navigation all the year, while 
the distance is but two hundred and fifty miles by the river 
from Padueah, on the Ohio. The Tennessee offers many 
advantages over the Mississippi. We should avoid the 
almost inpregnable batteries of the enemy, which cannot 
be taken without great danger and great risk of life to our 
forces, from the fact that our boats, if crippled, would fall a 
prey to the enemy by being swept by the current to him, 
and away from the relief of our friends. But even should 
we succeed, still we will only have begun the war, for we 
shall then have to fight the country from whence the enemy 
derives his supplies. 

Now, an advance up the Tennessee river would avoid 
this danger; for, if our boats wi re crippled, they would drop 
back with the current and escape capture. 

But a still greater advantage would be its tendency to cut 
the enemy's lines in two, by reaching the Memphis and Charleston 
railroad, threatening Memphis, which lies one hundred 
miles due west, and no defensible point between; also 



Nashville, only ninety miles northeast, and Florence and 
Tuscumbia, in North Alabama, forty miles east. A move- 
ment in this direction would do more to relieve our friends 
in Kentucky, and inspire the loyal hearts in East Tennes- 
see than the possession of the whole of the mississippi river. 
If well excuted,?/ would cause the evacuation of all the formidable 
fortifications upon which the rebels ground their hopes for 
success ; and, in the event of our floor attacking Mobile, the 
presence of our troops in the northern part of Alabama 
■would be material aid to the fleet. 

Again, the aid our forces would receive from the loyal 
men in Tennessee would enable them soon to crush the last 
traitor in that region, and the separation of the two extremes 
would do more than one hundred battles for the Union 
cause. 

The Tennessee river is crossed by the Memphis aad 
Louisville railroad and the Memphis and Nashville railroad. 
At Hamburg the river makes the big bend on the east, 
touching the northeast corner of Mississippi, entering the 
northwest corner of Alabama, forming an arc to the south, 
entering the State of Tennessee at the northeast corner of 
Alabama, and if it does not touch the northwest, corner of 
Georgia, comes very near it. It; is but eight miles from 
Hamburg to Memphis and Charleston railroad, which goes 
through Tuscumbia, only two miles from the river, which 
it crosses at Decatur, thirty mile3 above, intersecting with 
the Nashville and Chattanooga road at Stephenson. The 
Tennessee river has never less than three feet to Hamburg 
on the "shoalest" bar, and, during the fall, winter, and 
spring months, there is always writer for the largest boats 
that are used on the Mississippi river. It follows from the 
above facts that in making the Mississippi the key to the war 
in the West, or rather in overlooking the Tennessee river, 
the subject is not understood by the superiors in command. 

On the 5th of January, 1862, she communicated some 
additional facts, of which the following is an extract : 

Having given you my views of the Tennessee river on my 
return from the West, showing that this river is the true 
strategical key to overcome the rebels in the southwest, I beg again 
to recur to the importance of its adoption. This river is 
never impeded by ice in the coldest winter, as the Missis- 
sippi and Cumberland sometimes are. I ascertained, when 
in St. Louis, that the gunboats then fitting out could not 
retreat against the current of the western rivers, and so 






stated to you; beside, their principal guns are placed for- 
ward, and will not be very efficient against an enemy below 
them. The fighting would have to be done by their stern 
guns, only two, or if they anchored by the stern, they would 
lose the advantage of motion, which would prevent the 
enemy from getting their range. Our gunboats, at anchor, 
would be a target which the enemy will not be slow to 
improve and benefit thereby. 

The Tennessee river, beginning at Paducah, fifty miles 
above Cairo, after leaving the Ohio, runs across south-south- 
east, rather than through Kentucky and Tennessee, until it 
reaches the Mississippi line, directly west of Florence and 
Tuscumbia, which lie fifty miles east, and Memphis, one 
hundred and twenty-five miles west, with the Memphis and 
Charleston railroad eight miles from the river. There is no 
difficulty in reaching this point any time of the year, and 
the water is known to be deeper than on the Ohio. 

If you will look on the map of the Western States you 
will see in what a position Buckner would be placed by a 
strong advance up the Tennessee river. He would be 
obliged to back out of Kentucky, or if ho did not our forces 
could take Nashville in his rear, and compel him to lay down 
his arras. 

The Government comprehended the transcendent impor- 
tance of her suggestions, accepted them, inaugurated the 
campaign upon them, and the decisive blow was struck 
which cut the Confederate power in two, coerced the evacu- 
ation of all the formidable fortifications ou the Mississippi- 
from Columbus to Memphis; averted European intervention 
and consequent war with the United States removed the 
visible and growing discontent in the great Northwest; 
revived the National credit, and hurled the enemy back to 
the Vicksburg and Meridian railroad, and brought the 
national forces in contact with the slave population of the 
cotton States, which turned four millions of people, until 
then a source of his strength against him, and to the support 
of the Union. 

That the danger from financial bankruptcy and European 
intervention and invasion may be more fully apprehended, 
which in those supreme moments made the very existence 
of the Government a question of doubt, and to show more, 



6 

clearly that the victories in the West were not achieved a 
day to soon to prevent defeat and the loss of the Union, 
your memorialist asks your attention to the extracts from the 
speeches of many distinguished statesmen of that period in 
both Houses of Congress, many of whom were occupying 
positions on the most important committees connected with 
the prosecution of the war, and necessarily possessed of the 
most accurate information. (See Appendix 1.) 

So soon as the victories revealed that the Government 
was in very fact advancing the army on a definite plan to the 
destruction of the rebellion, the enthusiasm of the people 
and of Congress was thoroughly aroused, and not knowing 
who had projected the campaign in the exultation of the 
hour, they ascribed the honor to one and another as their par- 
tiality or favoritism inclined. In this connection your me- 
morialist respectfully invites your attention to the discussion 
upon the resolution of Mr. l\oscoe Oonkling in the House 
of Representatives, on the 24th of February, 1802, the object 
of which was to ascertain " whether these victories were organ- 
ized or directed, at a distance from the fields where then were won, 
and if so, by whom, organized, or whether they were the concep. 
tions of those who executed them" 

She also invites your attention to the subsequent remarks 
of Mr. Washburn, in the House, and Mr. Grimes, Chair- 
man of the Naval Committee, in the Senate. (See Ap- 
pendix 2.) 

With the knowledge that the Government was acting 
upon the information communicated by her, your memorial- 
ist contributed other suggestions as the campaign pro. 
gressed. 

Immediately after the fall of Fort Henry she suggested to 
the Secretaiy of War the practicability of advancing the 
army onward to Mobile or Vicksburg. Her duplicate of 
this letter she has not as yet been able to find, bat it may 
be observed there is an allusion to it in her letter of October, 
186?, on the reduction of Vicksburg. 

In view of the disappointment manifested at the check 



which the naval flotilla received at Island 10, and with per- 
fect confidence that the campaign would accomplish every 
result, as promised by the suggestions in November, your 
memorialist addressed the Secretary of War the 26th of 
March, 1862, of which the following is an extract: 

The failure to take Island 10, which thus far occasions 
much disappointment to the couutry, excites no surprise to 
me. When I looked at the gunboats at St. Louis, and was 
informed as to their power, and considered that the current 
of the Mississippi at full tide runs at the rate of five miles 
per hour, which is very near the speed of our gunboats, I 
could not resist the conclusion that they were not well fitted 
to the taking of batteries on the Mississippi river if assisted 
by gunboats perhaps equal to our own. Hence it was that 
I wrote Col. Scott from there that the Tennessee river was 
our strategic point, and the successes at Forts Henry and 
Donelson established the justice of these observations. Had 
our victorious army, after the fall of Fort Henry, immediately 
pushed up the 'Tennessee river and. taken position on the Memphis 
and Charleston railroad, between Corinth, Mississippi, and De- 
catur, Alabama, which might easily have been done at that time 
with a small force, every rebel soldier in Western Kentucky and 
Tennessee would have fled from every position to the south of that 
railroad. And had J3uell pursued the enemy in his retreat 
lrom Nashville without delay into a commanding position 
in North Alabama on the railroad between Chattanooga and 
Decatur, the rebel government at Richmond would have 
necessarily been obliged to retreat to the cotton States. I 
am fully satisfied that the true policy of Gen. 11. is to 
strengthen Grant's column by such a force as will enable 
him at once to seize the Memphis and Charleston railroad, as it is 
the readiest means of reducing Island 10, and cdl the strongholds 
of the enemy to Memphis. 

And again observing in October, 1862, preparations for a 
naval attack on Vicksburg she wrote as follows: 

As I understand an expedition is about to go down the 
river for the purpose ot reducing Vicksburg, I have pre- 
pared the enclosed map in order to demonstrate more clearly 
the obstacles to be encountered in the contemplated assault. 
In the first place it is impossible to take Vicksburg in front with- 
out too great a loss of life and material, for the reason that the 
river is only about half a mile wide, and our forces would 
be in point-blank range of their guns — not only from their 



water-batteries which line the shore, but from the batteries 
that crown the hills, while the enemy would be protected 
by the elevation from the range of our fire. By examining 
the map I enclose, you will at once perceive why a place of 
so little apparent strength has been enabled to resist the 
combined fleets of the Upper and Lower Mississippi. The 
most economical jilan for the reduction of Vicksburg now, is to 
push a column from Memphis or Corinth down the Mississippi 
Central railroad to Jackson, the capital of the State of Missis- 
sippi. The occupation of Jackson and the command of the rail- 
road to New Orleans would compel the immediate evacuation of 
Vicksburg as well as the retreat of the entire rebel army east 
of that iine; and by another movement of our army from 
Jackson, Mississippi, or from Corinth to Meredian in the 
State of Mississippi, on the Ohio and Mobile railroad, 
especially if aided by a movement of our gunboats on Mobile, 
the confederate forces, with all the disloyal men and their 
slaves would be compelled to fly east of the Tombigbee. 

Mobile being then in our possession with 100,000 men at 
Meridian would redeem the entire country from Memphis 
to the Tombigbee river. Of course, I would have the gun- 
boats with a small force at Vicksburg as auxiliary to this 
movement. With regard to the canal, Vicksburg can be 
rendered useless to the confederate army upon the very 
first rise of the river, but I do not advise this, because 
Vicksburg belongs to the United States, and we desire to 
hold and fortify it, for the Mississippi liver at Vicksburg 
and the Vicksburg and Jackson railroad will become neces- 
sary as a base of our future operations. Vicksburg might 
have been reduced eight months ago, as 1 then advised after the 
fall of Fort Henry, and with much more ease than it can be done 
to- day. 

Other papers upon military operations were contributed 
by your memorialist during the progress of the war, but 
those only are given which relate to the Tennessee cam- 
paign. 

Your memorialist now respectfully submits that a com- 
parison of these papers with the official history of the mili- 
tary operations in that quarter will show that the plan of 
these campaigns is distinctly arid clearly set forth in her 
paper of November SO, 1861, and the subsequent letters in 
relation thereto. The correctness of this plan was proven 
not alone by the successes which awaited upon its execution, 



but likewise by the failures to open the Mississippi or win 
any decided success on the plan first devised by the Gov- 
ernment. 

That the advantages grjncu by the campaign were not 
pressed to the final conquest of the rebellion in '62, '63, 
does not in the least impair tiie value of the plan, since the 
merit is in the conception rather than its e^ecuiion. For 
when the Government was shown the ci'-^oivo position 
in the geographical centre of the rebel power, with a navi- 
gable river for a line of communication with the North, 
which the enemy could neither break nor destroy, the mas- 
tery of the rebellion by the National arms was ever more 
assured, even though the powers of all Europe should be 
arrayed upon its side. This campaign haviug therefore 
decided the issues of our great war, must ever rank with 
th^se very tew strategic movements in the world'n history 
which have settled the fate of empires and nations. Hence 
a more extended account of its origin and development 
might seem to be demanded than that which has heretofore 
been presented. 

Your memorialist, under an agreement with the "War 
Department to write in aid of the Union, and with the hope 
of rendering greater efficiency, visited the West in the 
autumn of '61 for the purpose of studying the condition of 
affairs in that military department. Soon after she arrived 
her attention was arrested by the confidence with which 
the best informed Southern sympathisers in that section 
expressed the opinion that the Government could 4iot sup- 
press the rebellion ; that the Army of the Potomac, no mat- 
ter how strong it might be made, could not reach Richmond 
before summer, and that Columbus would effectually bar 
any advance down the Mississippi ; that before spring Price 
would redeem the whole- of Missouri, and Buckner the 
whole of Kentucky, and the Confederate flag would be 
planted on the Northern border of the slave States, when it 
would become the material interest of the Northwest to stop 
the war and compel the government to come to terms with 
the South. These declarations were having a most depress- 



10 

ing effect upon the loyal sentiment in that section. Your 
memorialist realizing the imminency of the danger that 
environed the Union, directed her inquiries as to the best 
means of escape. Her anxiety in regard to the success of 
the Mississippi expedition was increased by the opinion 
expressed by Judge Evans, of Texas, who, from personal 
observation, was accurately acquainted with the topography 
of the Mississippi valley, whose attention had been called 
to this plan of campaign by Secretary Chase when in Wash- 
ington some time before, who wished his opinion upon the 
proposed movement, and in view of the difficulties, Mr. 
Chase expressed his own doubts and his preference for an 
overland expedition through Cumberland Gap, Chatanooga, 
Atlanta, and thence to the sea. 

Your memorialist then resolved to seek the information 
of practical steamboat men as to their views of the Missis- 
sippi expedition. She met in the hotel at St. Louis Mrs. 
Scott, whose husband, Captain C. M. Scott, a pilot, was con- 
nected with the expedition, and requested to see him, and 
on his return to St. Louis after the battle of Belmont she 
sent for him. Her energies were quickened at this time by 
the sight of the battle-torn regiment, the Seventh Iowa, as 
it filed into Benton Barracks. She learned from Captain 
Scott, who was a very intelligent and experienced pilot on 
the Mississippi, that it would be impossible to reduce Co- 
lumbus with the gunboats without a very large co-operating 
land force, and after a very long siege; ih it the gunboats 
were not suited to fight down the Mississippi, on account 
of its strong current ; that there were a great many posi- 
tions on the Mississippi that the enemy could make as 
strong as Columbus; that they would be fortified as our 
fleet descended, so that innumerable battles must be fought, 
and it would take years to open that river; and this, he said, 
was the belief of every pilot connected with the expedition. 
He said the Cumberland, at favorable stages of water, was 
navigable for the gunboats to Nashville, and the Tennessee 
at all stages to the Muscle Shoals, in Alabama. Upon the 
mention of the navigability of the Tennessee river for gun- 



11 

boats to the Muscle Shoals, in Alabama, the thought flashed 
upon the mind of your memorialist that all the fortifications 
on the Mississippi might be turned by advancing the army 
up the Tennessee river to a position in North Mississippi or 
Alabama. She immediately communicated this thought to 
Judge Evans, and asked him if it could not be done; he 
concurred that it could, and after reflecting a moment, said, 
"That's the move." Your memorialist said, " I will have 
it done." She invited him to join in the interview. In 
answer to our inquiries, Captain Scott stated the draft and 
speed of the gunboats and number of guns; the width and 
depth of the channel of the Mississippi; the number of 
bluffs upon the river, and the wide extent of the swamp or 
overflowed lands; also the width and depth of the channel 
of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. He did not think 
the gunboats could pass over the Muscle Shoals, in Ala- 
bama. We inquired as to the practicability of the naval 
expedition reaching Mobile, and as to the navigability of 
the Alabama apd Tombigbee rivers. Ho thought the fleet 
could not pass the bar, some seven miles below that city; 
said the Tombigbee afforded good steamboat navigation to 
Demopolis, which is one hundred and fifty miles from the 
Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee river. 

Your memorialist requested this gentleman to give her a 
memorandum of the facts elicited and informed him that 
it wns her purpose to induce the Government, if possible, to 
change the plan upon which they were operating and divert 
the expedition up the Tennessee river, and in the event of 
the change, requested him to furnish her with all the facts 
he could obtain during his continuance with the expe- 
dition. 

She hastened to Washington and prepared her paper upon 
the data she collected, and laid it before the Government 
the 80th of November, 1861, as hereinbefore stated. 

Col. Scott, to whom she read it in the War Department, 
had then control of the railroads used by the Government, 
and was accurately iuformed upon llie railroad system of the 
South and its value in war. He saw at once that tho eciz- 



12 

ure of Memphis and Charleston railroad at that point would 
not only open the Mississippi, but would open the way for 
McClellan's march on Richmond. He expressed great grat- 
ification and said it was the first solution of the difficulty, 
and he had no doubt but your memorialist was right. He 
asked her for the paper; she told him it was for the use of 
the Government she had prepared it, and said to him, repeat- 
ing the language, " if it is upon the expedition to descend 
the Mississippi that you rely to save the Union, then there 
is an end of it, but if you will have that expedition diverted 
up the Tennessee river, you will not only save the Union, 
but cover yourself with glory." 

As these suggestions did not come from any one connected 
with the military or naval service, it was deemed prudent 
that the Government should appropriate them without any 
• reference to their source. 

She left the paper without signature, caring absolutely 
nothing in tbose supreme moments, if it but saved the coun- 
try, whether it should be denied or forgotten that she was 
its author. 

Convinced of the importance of her suggestions, Colonel 
Scott requested your memorialist to continue her labors, 
and contribute all she deemed important during the war. 
He submitted the paper to the Secretary of "War and Presi- 
dent Lincoln. The President had from the beginning re- 
served special direction of the Mississippi expedition, now, 
decided the Tennessee river as the line of invasion. And 
when Secretary Stanton came into the Department, the mid- 
dle of January, 1862, the campaign was inaugurated, and 
Colonel Scott, under the instructions of the Government, 
went forward to arrange to increase the effective force of 
the Western armies as rapidly as possible for the purpose of 
carrying it through. 

In proof that your memorialist submitted the plau of cam- 
paign, as set forth in her memorial, and that the govern- 
ment profited thereby, she ofl'era the following from Hotu 
Thomas A, Scott, Assistant Secretary of War j 



13 

Philadelphia, June 15, 1870. 
I learn from Miss Carroll that she has a claim before Con- 
gress for services rendered in the year 1861, in aid of the 
Government. I believe the Government ought now to 
reward her liberally for the efforts she made in its behalf. 
I hope you will be able to pass some measure that will give 
Miss Carroll what she is most certainly entitled to. 

THOMAS A. SCOTT. 
Hon. Jacob M. Howard, 

United Stales Senate. 

Philadelphia, June 24, 1870. 

On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll* 
as stated in her memorial, called on me, as Assistant Secre- 
tary of War, and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expe- 
dition which was then preparing to descend the 31ississippi river 
and to adopt instead the Tennessee river, and handed to me the 
plan of campaign, as appended to her memorial, which plan I 
submitted to the Secretary of War, and its general ideas 
were adopted. On my return from the Southwest, in 1862, 
I informed Miss Carroll, as she states in her memorial, that 
through the adoption of this plan the country had been saved 
millions, and that it entitled her to the kind consideration 
of Congress. 

THOMAS A. SCOTT. 

Hon. Jacob M. Howard, 

Of the Military Committee of the United States Senate. 

Again : 

Philadelphia, May 1, 1872. 

My Dear Sir: I take pleasure in stating that the plan 
presented by Miss Carroll, in November, 1861, for a cam- 
paign upon the Tennessee river and thence South, was sub- 
mitted to the Secretary of War and President Lincoln. And, 
after Secretary Stanton's appointment, I was directed to go 
to the Western armies and arrange to increase their effective 
force as rapidly as possible. A part of the duty assigned 
me was the organization and consolidation into regiments 
of all the troops then being recruited in Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, and Michigan, for the purpose of carrying through 
this campaign, then inaugurated. 

This work was vigorously prosecuted by the army, and, 
as the valuable sua-g-estions of Miss Carroll, made to the 
Department some months beiore, ivere substantially carried out 
through the campaigns in thai section — great successes followed, 



u 

and the country was largely benefitted in the saving of time 
and expenditure. 

I hope Congress will reward Miss Carroll liberally for her 
patriotic efforts and services. 

Very truly, yours, THOMAS A. SCOTT. 

Hon. Henry Wilson, 

Chairman Military Committee, U. S. Senate. 

That President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton fully recog- 
nized the service of your memorialist will appear from the 
following letter of the Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of the 
"Committee on the Conduct of the War:" 

Washington, February 28, 1872. 
To the Chairman of the Military Committee of the United States 

Senate ; 
Dear Sir: I have been requested to make a brief state- 
ment of what I can recollect concerning the claim of Miss 
Carroll, now before Congress. From my position as chair- 
man of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, it came 
to my knowledge that the expedition which was preparing, 
under the special direction of President Lincoln, to descend 
the Mississippi river, was abandoned, and the Tennessee 
expedition was adopted by the Government in pursuance of 
information and a plan presented to the Secretary of War, 
I think in the latter part of November, 1861, by Miss Car- 
roll. A copy of this plan was put in my hands immediately 
after the fall of Forts Henry and lionelson. With the 
knowledge of its author, I interrogated witnesses before the 
committee to ascertain how far military men were cogni- 
zant of the fact. Subsequently, J x r<sid<nt Lincoln informed 
me thai the merit of this plan van due to Miss Carroll; that the 
transfer of the armies from Cairo and the northern part of Ken- 
tucky to the Memphis and Charleston railroad was her conception, 
and icas afterwards carried out generally, and very much in de- 
tail, according to her suggestions. Secretary Stanton also con- 
versed loith me on the mailer, and fully recognized Iiltss CarroWa 
strcice to (he Union in /he organization of this campaign. In- 
deed, both Mr. Lincoln and Mi'. Stanton, the latter only a 
few weeks before his death, expressed to me their high ap- 
preciation of this service, and all the other services she was 
enabled to render the country by her influence and ability 
as a writer, and they both expressed the wish that the Gov- 
ernment would reward her liberally for the same, in which 
I most fully concur. 

J3. F. WADE. 



15 

As more conclusively showing the appreciation in which 
Secretary Stanton held tbe services of your memorialist, she 
submits the following correspondence with Judge Wade: 

March 28, 1873. 

My Dear Judge Wade : I took a memorandum at the 
time of some remarks of yours to me in a conversation we 
had in January, 1870. Alluding to the recent death of 
Secretary Stanton, you said I "had lost a strong friend in 
him," and repeated several remarks he made to you respect- 
ing myself in connection with the services I had rendered 
the country in the civil war. I inquired how long since this 
was said ? You replied, " why the very last time I ever saw 
him ; only a few weeks before he died. I was with him on 
that occasion four hours. He voluntarily spoke of you, and 
said there was one person who had done more to save this 
country than all the rest of the herder State people together, 
and who to that time had had no proper recognition or 
reward for it." I asked him who he meant? He said, 
" Why, Miss Carroll." I told him I had always known 
that. lie said, " if his life loas spared, he intended you should 
be properly recognized and reworded for origin a ling the Tennessee 
campaign, that the merit belonged to you, and he would see you 
through Congress if he lived." Your remarks, coming so 
recently from Mr. Stanton, impressed me very much, es- 
pecially as they accorded so fully with what he said him- 
self to me some two years before. I would be pleased if you 
can recall what I have stated. 
With great esteem, 

ft. E. CARROLL. 

Washington, March 31, 1873. 
Miss Carroll: I have received your note in which you 
desire me to state the language in which Mr. Stanton ex- 
pressed himself in reference to your services during and 
after the war, the substance of which you already have. I 
remember that he stated those sentiments with great earn- 
estness, but after such a length of time I cannot undertake 
to state the exact language that he used, but when I related 
to you what he said, so soon after the event, I doubt not that 
I used or rather repeated very nearly the language he used 
in expressing himself to me, and there is nothing in your 
relation of what I told you, that conflicts with my recollec- 
tion of his language to me. 

Yours truly, 

B. F. WADE. 



ii 

Hon. 0. H. Browning, of Illinois, Senator during the 
War, and in confidential relations with President Lincoln 
and Secretary Stanton, refers in the following letter to the 
estimation in which they held military services of your mem- 
orialist : 

Quincy, Illnois, Sept. 17th, 1873. 

Miss A. E. Carroll: During the progress of the war 
of the rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, I had frequent conver- 
sations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton in 
regard to the active and efficient part you had taken in be- 
half of the country, in all of which they expressed their 
admiration of and gratitude for the patriotic and valuable 
services you had rendered the cause of the Union— and the 
hope that you would be adequately compensated by Con- 
gress. At this late day I cannot recall the details of those 
conversations, but am sure that the salutatory influence of 
your publications upon public opinion and your suggestions in con- 
nection with the important military movements were among the 
meriiorius services which they recognized as entitled to remuneration. 

In addition to the large debt of gratitude which the 
country owes you, I am sure you are entitled to generous 
pecuniary compensation, which I trust will not be with- 
held. With sentiments of high regard, 

I am your obedient servant, 

O. H. BROWNING. 

In confirmation of her own statement as to the concep- 
tion and development of the plan of the Tennessee campaign, 
your memorialist submits the statement made by Chief 
Justice Evans, of the Supreme Court of Texas, to the Chair- 
man of the Senate Military Committee of the 42d Congress: 

Washington, April 27, 1872. 

Sir : Having been requested to state my knowledge of the 
Tennessee plan of campaign, I respectfully submit that Miss 
Carroll was the first to suggest to the Government the prac- 
ticability and importance of moving the armies from Cairo 
up the Tennessee river into Northern Mississippi or Ala- 
bama, on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. 

It may be remembered that the rebel power very early in 
the contest developed a strength and proportion which the 
country was not prepared to expect. This tact, together 
with our failure to achieve any early military success, was 
having a most depressing effect upon the spirit of the coun- 



IT 

try, while the danger of foreign intervention was becoming 
more and more imminent. Indeed, our Government was 
warned that without some decided military advantage before 
spring, England and France would acknowledge the inde- 
pendence of the South, and raise the blockade for a supply 
of cotton. If, then, we would preserve the Union, we must 
in a very short period gain a strategic position South that 
would satisfy the country, and convince European powers of 
the ability of the Government to suppress the rebellion. 

To find this decisive point, and the direction in which a 
blow could be delivered that would insure this result, became 
in the autumn of 1861 a matter of the most serious military 
consideration. It was in this exigency that Miss Carroll 
visited the West in quest of information in aid of the Union, 
as she stated to me, and as I fully believe. 

From early in October to about the 20th of November, 
1861, she was at the Everett House, in Saint Louis. I was 
also in that city, and conversed almost every day with her 
upon the military and political situation in that quarter, and 
especially in reference to the difficulties to be overcome by 
the expedition preparing to open the Mississippi- I am, 
therefore, able from personal knowledge to state the origin 
of the plan of the Tennessee campaign from its inception to 
its final draught and presentation to the War Department. 
The conception which is embodied in this plan occurred to 
the mind of Miss Carroll about the middle of November, 
1861, in conversation with Mr. Charles M. Scott, a pilot on 
one of the transports connected with the expedition to 
descend the Mississippi river. She learned some important 
facts from his wife, whom she met in the hotel, concerning 
the naval preparations for the expedition, and requested to 
see her husband that she might be informed as to the spe- 
cial knowledge and opinions of practical steamboatmen, and 
on his arrival in Saint Louis, after the battle of Belmont, 
she sent for him. 

When he stated to her that it was his opinion, and that of 
the pilots generally who were familiar with the western 
waters, that the naval expedition could not open the Missis- 
sippi; that the Gunboats were not fitted to fight down that 
river, and that it was practicable for them to go up th4 
Tennessee, the thought occurred to her that the Govern- 
ment should direct the Mississippi; expedition up the Ten- 
nessee river to some point in Northern Mississippi or Ala- 
bama, so as to command the Memphis and Charleston rail- 
road. In a very earnest and animated manner she commun- 



18 

icated this thought to me. Being a native of that section, 
and intimately acquainted with its geography, and particu- 
larly with the Tennessee river, I was at once impressed with 
the tremendous value of her suggestions. She immediately 
introduced Captain Scott to me with a request that I would 
interrogate him on all his special facts. He stated the 
number and strength of the fortifications on the Mississippi 
and the impossibility of the gunboats to reduce them, the 
width and depth of the Tennessee river, and the practica- 
bility of ascending with the gunboats to the foot of the 
Muscle Shoals, but did not think they could pass above. 

With the view of ascertaining the practicability of a naval 
expedition to reach Mobile and ascend the Alabama and 
Tombigbee rivers, I questioned him as to the depth of these 
waters also. We were so impressed with the fullness and 
accuracy of his information, that Miss Carroll asked him to 
write it down for her, to do which he declined, as he said, 
from want of education, but finally consented. The same 
dav she wrote from St. Louis to Attorney General Bates, 
and Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, 
suggesting the exchange of the expedition from the Missis- 
ippi to the Tennessee river, and on her arrival in Washing- 
ton, the latter part of November, she prepared the plan of 
campaign appended to her memorial, and submitted it to 
me for my opinion, and, without signature, placed the same 
in the hands of Thomas A. Scott to be used by the Govern- 
ment without her name being known in its connection. 

She communicated with the pilot, Captain Scott, at Cairo, 
what she had done, and the probabilities that her sugges- 
tions would be adopted by the Government, and requested 
him to send her from time to time all the information he 
could gather. He complied with her request, and gave her 
further important information, from which she prepared a 
second paper on the Tennessee campaign of January 5, 
1862, an imperfect copy of which appears in Mr. Howard's 
report. I say imperfect, because I have a very distinct re- 
collection of aiding her in the preparation of that paper, 
tracing with her, upon a map of the United States which 
hung in her parlor, the Memphis and Charleston railroad 
and its connections southward, the course of the Tennessee, 
the Alabama, and Tombigbee rivers, and the position of 
Mobile Bay; and when Henry fell, she wrote the Depart- 
ment showing the feasibility of going either to Mobile or 
Vicksburg. 

In conclusion, I will state that having critically examined 



19 

all the plans of our generals and everything official which 
has been published by the War Department bearing on this 
point, and every history that has been written upon the war, 
it is evident that, up to the time Miss Carroll submitted her 
plan to the Government, it had not occurred to any military 
mind that the true line of invasion was not down the Mississippi 
river, nor yet up the Cumberland to Nashville, and thence over- 
land, but that it was the Tennessee river, and on that line alone, 
that the Mississippi coxdd be opened and the power of the rebellion 
destroyed. 

It had not been perceived that moving a force up the 
Tennessee river into Northern Mississippi or Alabama 
strong enough to maintain itself and command the Memphis 
and Charleston railroad would render all the fortifications 
from Bowling Green to Columbus and from Columbus to 
Memphis valueless to the enemy, and cause their evacuation 
and bring the whole Mississippi Valley under the control 
of the national arms. 

Respectfully submitted. 

L. D. EVANS. 

Hon. Henry "Wilson, 

Chairman of the Military Committee of the U. S. Senate. 

Your memorialist's connection with this campaign, was 
for military reasons, known only to a few friends outside of 
the War Department, to whom she confidentially exhibited 
her paper at the time, among these was Judge Whittlesev, 
of Ohio, who, after the fall of Henry and Donelson, asked 
for a copy of her plan for the purpose of endorsing his 
appreciation of the service, and bequeathing it as a legacy 
to his children. She was permitted, by his son in Mansfield, 
Ohio, to see this paper for the first time in December last, 
of which the following is a copy: 

Treasury Department, Comptroller's Office, 

.February 20, 1862. 
This will accompauy copies of two letters written by Miss 
Anna Ella Carroll to the War Department. Havino> in- 
formed me of the contents of the letters, I requested her to 
permit me to copy her duplicates. When she brought them 
to me, she enjoined prudence in their use. They are verv 
extraordinary papers as verified by the result. So far as I 
know or believe, our unparalleled victories on the Tennes- 



20 

see and Cumberland rivers may be traced to her sagacious 
observations and intelligence. Her views were as broad 
and sagacious as the field to be occupied. In selecting the 
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers instead of the Mississippi, 
she set at naught the opinions of civilians, of military and 
naval men. Justice should be done her patriotic discern- 
ment. She labors for her country and for her whole coun- 
try. 

ELISHA WHITTLESEY. 

Your memorialist invites your attention to the following 
letters received from distinguished men who have examined 
her claim : 

Baltimore, October 12, 1872. 

My Dear Miss Carroll : I have examined as far as I 
have been able, because of pressing engagements, the papers 
you placed in my hands relating to your claim for services 
rendered the Government during the civil war. That very 
valuable services were rendered, and that they contributed 
very materially to the success of the Union arms in the 
"West is very satisfactorily established. Amongst other 
proofs, the letters of Messrs. Wade and Scott are conclusive. 
Each had the best means of knowing what your services 
were and how valuable they proved in their result. Every 
fair-minded man, with this evidence before him, will, I am 
sure, concur in the opinion that you should be liberally 
compensated by the Government. And hoping this may 
be so, I remain, with regard, your friend and obedient 
servant, 

REVERDY JOHNSON. 

Hon. George Vickers, United States Senator, writes : 

Chestertown, Md., July 19, 1872. 
* * * I have read a printed copy of your memorial 
and exhibits with a great deal of pleasure, and concluded 
your case was a much stronger one than I had been apprised 
of. The letters of Judge Evans, Mr. Wade, and Mr. Scott 
are explicit, pointed, and strong. There can be no doubt 
that you originated the plan of the Tennessee campaign, 
and of its subsequent adoption by the Administration. 
Very sincerely, yours, 

GEORGE VICKERS. 

Hon. Truman Smith, of Connecticut, 20th of January, 
1873, Bays ; 



23 

I trust that whilst land, and rank, and pensions are allowed 
union men, that the union women who risked life and 
health, as well in the sanitary and in other departments, 
should share those similar rewards. 

Be that as it may, your case stands out unique — for you 
towered above all our generals in military genius, and it 
would be a shame upon our country if you were not honored 
with the gratitude of all and solid pecuniary reward. 

C. M. CLAY. 

Again Mr. Clay refers to the claim of your memorialist. 

White Hall, Madison County, 
Kentucky, April, 23, 1873. 

My Dear Miss Carroll: Your favor enclosing your let- 
ter to Dr. Draper is received. After the exhaustive proof 
of your being the projector of the Tennessee line of attack 
upon the confederacy, it seems a waste of time to consider 
General Hal leek's claim. * * * Were he proven capable 
of such a conception as Dr. Draper awards him, your pre- 
sentation of the case is conclusive against its actuality. 

I cannot believe that Congress will hesitate to admit your 
claim with all honor and substantial pecuniary reward — 
compensation such as all Governments bestow upon those 
who assist in saving their nation. 

Perhaps I am all the more interested in your case because 
of your historic name, and because it seems to me that those 
of the South who stood by the Union of these States, gave 
higher proof of disinterested patriotism than any other 
citizen of the Republic. 

C. M. clay. 

The following is from Hon. J. T. Headley, the distin- 
guished historian of the civil war: 

Kewburg, K Y., February 6, 1873. 
My Dear Madam : 1 am much obliged for the pamphlet 
you sent me. * * * 1 yiever knew before with whom 
the plan of the campaign up the Tennessee river originated. 
There seemed to be a mystery attached to it that I could 
not solve. * * Though General Buel sent me 

an immense amount of documents relating to this campaign, 
I could find no reference to the origin of the change of plan. 
Afterwards I saw it attributed to Halleck, which I knew to 
be false, and I noticed he never corroborated it. It is 
strange that, after all my research, it has rested with you to 



24 

enlighten me. Money cannot pay for the plan of that campaign. 
I doubt not Congress * * will show, not lib- 

erality, but some justice in the matter. 
Yours, very sincerely, 

J. T. HEADLEY. 

The Military Committee of the United States Senate, at 
the third session of the Forty-first Congress, reported (No. 
339) that your memorialist did furnish the plan of the Ten- 
nessee campaign, and that it was adopted by the Govern- 
ment; and they further reported that, in view of her highly 
meritorious services throughout the whole period of our 
national troubles, and especially at that epoch of the war to 
which her memorial makes reference, and in consideration of 
the further fact that all the expenses incident to these ser- 
vices were borne by herself, the committee believe her claim to 
be just, and that it ought to be recognized by Congress. 

In preferring her claim for originating the Tennessee 
campaign, your memorialist detracts not from the fame of 
any one, for, so far as she is aware, no one has ever laid claim 
to it ; and she has carefully examined every official order, 
letter, and telegram hitherto published in connection with 
this campaign. And she now submits, had these papers 
your memorialist laid before the Government — suggesting 
the Tennessee campaign in advance of all others — been the 
work of one in the military or naval service, would he not 
have been heralded as the foremost strategist of the war? 
Would he not have been commissioned to the highest grade 
of the service and insured corresponding pay for life? In 
the name of all that is just and equal, can you withhold a 
similar recognition from one on whom, in the hour of the 
nation's desperate emergency, the Government relied, be- 
cause not trained under the rules and axioms of war? 

Other services were rendded by your memorialist. She 
wrote and published in aid of ihe Union from the inception 
of the rebellion to its close. In the summer of 1861 she pub- 
lished a replv to the speech of Senator Breckenridge, deliv- 
ered in the July session of Congress. Colonel Scott, Assist- 



2$ 

ant Secretary of War, to whom she was referred by the 
Secretary, decided to circulate a large edition as a war meas- 
ure. At the same time she had an agreement to write other 
pamphlets in aid of the Union, and particularly upon the 
power of the Government in the conduct of the civil war, 
to be submitted to the Department for approval, and if 
approved, to be paid their value. Under this agreement 
the second, entitled the. "War Powers of the Govern- 
ment," was submitted to the Department in December, 1861, 
examined, approved, and its publication ordered ; but she 
was requested to wait for settlement until another appro- 
priation. 

The third, entitled " The Relations of the Revolted Citi- 
zens to the National Government," was written to meet the 
express views of President Lincoln, to whom it was directly 
submitted, and by him approved in advance of publication. 
At his request she prepared several papers on the coloni- 
zation of the freedmen, a measure in which at the time he 
evinced great interest. And she wrote and published sub- 
sequently, on various subjects, as they were evoked by the 
war, and throughout the struggle, without any reference to 
pecuniary compensation. 

For the writing, publishing, and circulation of these, 
prepared under the auspices of Government, your memo- 
rialist presented an account of $6,750. 

Hon. Thomas A. Scott, with whom the agreement was 
had, having left the Department before her account was 
presented, wrote as follows to Hon. John Tucker, then 
Assistant Secretary of War : 

Philadelphia, January, 16, 1863. 
Hon. John Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War : 

I believe Miss Carroll has fairly earned and ought to be 

raid the amount of her bill, ($6,750,) and if you will pay her 
will certify to such form as you may think necessary as a 
voucher. 

THOMAS A. SCOTT. 



26 

To Assistant Secretary "Watson, who had the settlement 
of the claim, he wrote the following: 

Philadelphia, January 28, 1863. 

All my interviews with Miss Carroll were in my official 
capacity as Assistant Secretary of War. The pamphlets 
published were, to a certain extent, under a general author- 
ity then exercised by me in the discharge of public duties 
as Assistant Secretary of War. No price was fixed, but it 
was understood that the Gov eminent* would treat her with sufficient 
liberality to compensate her for any service she might render. 

I thought them then, and still believe they were, of great 
value to the Government, and that she fairly earned and 
should be paid the amount she has charged, which I would 
have allowed in my official capacity, and which is certified 
as reasonable by many of the leading men of the country. 

THOMAS A. SCOTT. 

Assistant Secretary of War Watson subsequently paid 
$750 of this claim. This amount scarcely sufficed to detray 
the actual cost of the publications. She received. nothing for 
the time and labor in their preparation, yet they were pre- 
pared with the understanding she whould be compensated 
somewhat in proportion to their value to the Government. 

The creation of an intelligent and healthful public opinion 
at that time was as essential to the preservation of the 
Union as the creation and maintenance of armies in the 
field. As to the influence exerted upon public sentiment 
by these publications, your memorialist submits the follow- 
ing from the report of the Senate Military Committee in the 
41st Congress, made through Senator Jacob M. Howard : 

"From the high social position of Miss Carroll and her 
established ability as a writer and thinker, she was prepared 
at the inception of the rebellion to exercise a strong influ- 
ence in behalf of Liberty and the Union. That it was felt 
and respected in Maryland during the darkest hours in that 
State's history, there can be no question. Her publications 
throughout the struggle were eloquently and ably written 
and widely circulated, and did much to arouse and invigorate 
the sentimentof loyalty in Maryland and other border States. 
It is not too much to say that they were among the very ablest pub- 



2t 

lications of the time, and exerted a -powerful influence upon the 
hearts of the people. Some of these publications were prepared 
under the auspices of the War Department, and tor these 
Miss Carroll preferred a claim to reimburse her for the 
expenses incurred in their publication, which ought to have 
been paid." 

She also submits the opinions of some of the eminent men 
at that period : 

Hon. Edward Bates, Attorney General, ou the 21st of 
September, 1861— 

I have this moment, 11 o'clock Saturday night, finished 
reading your most admirable reply to the speech of Mr. 
Breckenridge. And now, my dear lady, I have only time to 
thank you for taking the trouble to embody for the use of 
others so much sound constitutional doctrine and so many 
valuable historical facts in a form so compact and manage- 
able. The President received a copy left for him and 
requested me to thank you cordially for your able support. 

This delay was not voluntary on my part. For some 
time past my time and mind have been painfully engrossed 
by very urgent public duties, and my best affections stirred 
by the present condition of Missouri, my own neglected and 
almost ruined State. And this is the reason why I have 
been so long deprived of the pleasure and instruction of 
perusing your excellent pamphlet. 

I remain, with great respect and regard, your friend and 
obedient servant, 

EDWARD BATES. 

Hon. Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of Interior — 

Your refutation of the sophisteries of Senator Brecken- 
ridge's speech is full and conclusive. I trust this reply may 
have an extended circulation at the present time, as I am 
sure its perusal by the people will do much to aid the cause 
of the Constitution and the Union. 

Globe Office, August 8, 1861. 
Allow me to thank you for the privilege of reading your 
admirable review of Mr. Brecken ridge's speech. 1 have 
enjoyed it greatly. Especially have I been struck with its 
very ingenious and just exposition of the constitutional law, 
bearing on the President, assailed by Mr. B., aucl with the 



very apt citation of Mr. Jefferson's opinion as to the pro- 
priety and necessity of disregarding mere legal punctillio, 
when the source of all is in danger of destruction. The 
gradual development of the plot in the South to overthrow 
the Union is also exceedingly well depicted and with remark- 
able clearness. If spoken in the Senate your article would 
have been regarded by the country as a complete and 
masterly refutation of Mr. B.'"s heresies. Though the 
peculiar position of the Globe might preclude the publi- 
cation of the review, I am glad that it has not been denied 
to the editor of the Globe to enjoy what the Globe itself has 
not been privileged to contain. 

I remain, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

SAM'L T. WILLIAMS. 

In the House of Representatives, on the 22d of January, 
1862, Hon. A. S. Diven, of New York, said : 

A specious argument in favor of what may be done under 
the war power by way of confiscation has been made. 
* * * Any one who desires to see it answered will find 
that a clever woman has done it completely. * * * The 
same one, in her cleverness, has answered nry friend from 
Ohio, [Mr. Bingham.] 

A Member. What is her name ? 

Mr. DIVEN". She signs herself, in her pamphlet, Anna 
Ella, Carroll. I commend her answer on the doctrine of 
the War Power to those who have been following that phan- 
tom and misleading the people; and I commend it to 
another individual, a friend of mine, who gave a most learned 
disquisition on the writ of habeas corpus and against the power 
of the President to imprison men. He will find that 
answered. I am not surprised at this. The French revo- 
lution discovered great political minds in some of the French 
women, and I am happy to see a like development in our 
women. 

Judge Diven subsequently addressed the following letter 
to your memorialist: 

Washington, February 9, 1862. 
I thank you for the note of the 6th. Your pamphlet I 
have read with satisfaction, as I had your former publica- 
tion, I have no desire to appear complimentary, but cannot 



29 

forbear the expression of my admiration of your writings. 
There ia a cogency in your argument that I have seldom 
met with. Such maturity of judicial learning with so com- 
prehensive and concise a style of communication, surprises 
me. Ladies have certainly seldom evinced ability as jurists — 
it may be because the profession was not their sphere — but 
you have satisfied me that at least one might have been a 
distinguished lawyer. Go on, madam, in aiding the cause 
to which you have devoted your talent; your country needs 
the labor of all her defenders. If the time will ever come 
when men will break away from passion and return to 
reason, your labors must be appreciated. Unless that time 
soon arrives, alas for this Republic! I have almost 
despaired of the wisdom of men. God's ways are mysteri- 
ous, and my trust in Him is left me as a ground of hope. I 
have the honor to be, madam, 

Your odedient servant, 

A. S. DIVEN. 

Hon. Richard S. Coxe, on the 15th of May, 18t>2, said : 

I have never read an abler or more conclusive paper than 
your " War Power" document in all my reading. Your 
charges are very reasonable. 

Washington, May 22, 1862. 

I most cheerfully endorse the papers respecting your 
publications under the authority of the War Department. 
Mr. Richard S. Coxe, I can say, is one of the ablest lawyers 
in this District or in the country. In his opinion of your- 
writings I entirely concur, as with other men who have 
expressed one. I regret I am without the influence to serve 
you at the War Department, but Mr. Lincoln, with whom 
I have conversed, has, I know, the highest appreciation of 
your services in this connection. Judge Collamer, whom I 
regard as among the first ot living statesmen and patriots, 
is enthusiastic in praise of your publications, and indeed I 
have heard but one opinion expressed by all the able men 
who have referred to them. 

Sincerely yours, 

R. J. WALKER. 

P. S. — I expect shortly to control a monthly, where your 
contributions will ever find a welcome place, especially m 
connection with the war, 



30 

Hon. Edgar Cowan, IT. S. Senator from Greensburg, 
Pa., 11th September, 1862, wrote: 

* * * I am ignorant of the value in money of the 
articles in question. I believe they were eminently useful 
and ought to be paid for fully. 

Hon. Eeverdy Johnson said : 

From the opinions of able men, in whose judgment I have 
all confidence, your charges are moderate. 

Hon. Charles O'Conor, of the New York bar, on the 10th 
of October, 1862, said: 

Without intending to express any assent or dissent to the 
positions therein asserted, but merely with a view of form- 
ing a judgment in respect to their merits as argumentative 
compositions, I have carefully perused Miss Carroll's pam- 
phlets. The propositions are clearly stated, the authorities 
relied on are judiciously selected, and the reasoning is 
natural, direct, and well sustained, and framed in a manner 
extremely well adapted to win the reader's assent, and thus 
to obtain the object in view. I consider the charges quite 
moderate. 

Hon. Edward Everett, on the 20th of September, 1862, 
said : 

I distinctly recollect that I thought them written with 
very great ability and research, and as Miss Carroll has 
unquestionably performed her part of the agreement with 
fidelity and a truly patriotic spirit, that of the Department, 
I have no doubt, will be fulfilled with liberality. 

Hon. William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, on the 4th 
of October, 1862, said : 

I had the pleasure of reading the publication on the War 
Powers of the Government, and it certainly exhibits very 
great ability and research. 

Hon. Horace Binney, sr., of Philadelphia, in October, 
1862, said: 

No publications evoked by the war have given me greater 
pleasure. They exhibit great ability ai d }atknt investiga- 
tion, and the pamphlet on the War Powers of the Govern- 



31 

ment has the additional merit of being in advance of any 
similar one, and rendered a timely and valuable service to 
the country. 

Hon. Jacob Collamer, late United States Senator, Decem- 
ber 5, 1862, said: 

There can be no question of the great intellectual value 
of these productions, or of their eminent usefulness to the 
cause of the Union. Were I Secretary of War I would 
cheerfully pay every dollar charged. 

Ex-Governor Hicks, of Maryland, then United States 
Senator, February 5, 1863, said : 

I know if Secretary Stanton could give his attention to 
your business matter it would be settled to your satisfaction ; 
for he could not express himself stronger than he has done 
to me of your services to the country. And President 
Lincoln has talked of you to me several times in the same 
way, and so have many of the ablest Unionists in Congress. 

I said at the War Department to Mr. Watson that I did 
not pretend to be competent to judge of the money value of 
literary performances, but I could say that your writings 
had had a powerful influence in Maryland for good, and that 
your defense of the war and the administration of Mr. Lin- 
coln did more of itself to elect a Union man as my successor 
than all the rest of the campaign documents put together. 

As you know, I am ready to serve you in any way I pos- 
sibly can. Your moral and material support I shall never 
forget, in that trying ordeal, such as no other man in this 
country ever went through. 

Greensburg, Pa., May 3, 1873. 
Miss Carroll : * * * 1 do remember well that Mr. 
Lincoln expressed himself in wonder and admiration at 
your papers upon the proper course to be pursued in legis- 
lating for the crisis. * * * In this connection I know 
that he considered your opinions sound and coming from a 
lady most remarkable for their knowledge of international 
and constitutional law. 

EDGAR COWAN. 

Rev. Dr. Breckenridge on the 6th of December, 1864, in 
referring to the part performed in the civil war by himself 
and your memorialist, writes : 



32 

* * * Is it not a purer, perhaps a higher ambition, to 
prove that in the most frightful times and through long 
years a single citizen had it in his power, by his example, 
his voice and his pen — by courage, by disinterestedness, by 
toil, to become a real power in the State of himself, which no 
powerbeside could wholly disregard. And have not you deli- 
icately nurtured women as you are, also cherished a similar am- 
bition and done a similar work even from a more difficultposition. 
* * It gives me great pleasure to learn that you propose to 
publish annals of this revolution, and I trust you will be 
spared to execute that purpose. 
Your friend and servant, 

R. J. BRECKINRIDGE. 

Danville, Ky. 

Your memorialist will now state that it is conclusively 
shown in the foregoing pages that the plan for opening the 
Mississippi and destroying the rebel power in the Southwest, was 
submitted to the Government iu November, 1861, as set 
forth in her memorial. 

2. That the armies advanced along the line of the Tennessee 
river to the decisive position on the Memphis and Charleston rail- 
road as pointed out in the plan and by consequence the Mis- 
sissippi was opened and the power of the rebellion effectu- 
ally broken. 

3. That Assistant Secretary of War, Thomas A. Scott, 
through whom the plan was submitted, and President Lin- 
coln and Secretary Stanton, by whom the campaign was 
inaugurated, recognized your memorialist as its author, and 
awarded to her its merit. 

4. That the pamphlets published under the auspices of the 
War Department were of great value to the Government, 
and her charges were moderate, and should have been fully 
paid. 

5. That your memorialist gave her time and energies ex- 
clusively to the cause of the Union throughout the struggle, 
and it was understood by the Assistant Secretary of War, 
Colonel Scott, as well as by your memorialist, that the Gov- 



33 

ernment should treat her with sufficient liberality to compensate her 
for any service she might render. 

Your memorialist respectfully asks you to make the ser- 
vice she rendered the people and Government of the United 
States the basis of your action, and reward her somewhat 
in proportion to the benefits received. 

ANNA ELLA CARROLL. 
March 28, 1874. 



APPENDIX 1 . 



EXTRACTS FKOM THE DEBATES IN CONGRESS IN 1861-62 
ON THE MILITARY SITUATION— THE TENNESSEE 
CAMPAIGN— PREVENTING FINANCIAL BANK- 
RUPTCY, AND FOREIGN INTERVENTION. 



IN THE HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVS. 

DECEMBER 16, 1861. 

Mr. Wickliffe : One thing I do know that whenever 
your array moves take possession of Columbus, a position 
seized and fortified, since the adjournment of the last Con- 
gress, you will require every soldier that can be brought to 
bear to take that place, and make an advance down the 
Mississippi river. When the array moves with the view of 
carrying out the plan of campaign, I do not waut that we 
shall have to leave one tenth of its force behind to protect 
the base of its operations in this campaign. And the first 
decisive battle that is to be fought in this campaign against 
the rebel army, will be fought on Kentucky soil. 

Mr. Morrill: If the people are willing to furnish 20,000 
more men to put down this rebellion I say let us bid them 
God speed in the work. "We know there is necessity for a 
very large force in that State. There is a large Confederate 
army at Columbus, and another at Bowling Green. We 
know that under Zolii coffer, Kentucky ia invaded through. 
Cumberland Gap aud * * Humphrey Marshall 13 iu 
another direction. 

Mr, Maynard : Kentucky occupies a peculiar situation 
in connection with our public affairs. * * She is not Only 
invaded by armies in large force and g;eat strength, 
but she has the elements of disorder within her own 
borders. She is surrounded by hostile forces on three sides 
who wish to make her union and loyal citizens feel the full 
force of their wrath. * * Hence she is subject to invasion from 
these quarters. * * You want, men familiar with the country, 
who have that sort of local knowledge to enubie them to 
meet this iuvading insurrectionary force, 



36 

Mr, Blair : We see the fact plainly as the Administration 
can see it, that our armes are not advancing, and that we have 
never met the enemy except when the enemy was in an 
overwhelming superior numbers. 

Mr. Richardson : The misfortune that has attended us 
heretofore has been that we have not been familiar with the 
country where we have to fight. * * Our base of operations has 
got to be Louisville. 

Mr. Diven : This rebellion must be put down speedily or 
it will wear out the resources of the country. * * * Let 
it be made apparent that by an additional force in Ken- 
tucky, this rebellion can be put down one month sooner. No 
better economy can be employed than by the expenditure 
of this money in Kentucky. Suppose it will be $10,000,000 
or $20,000,000, and that it will end the rebellion one month 
sooner, why we will then save $30,000,000, for I believe the 
current expenses of the Government are $30,000,000 per 
month. 

The question with me is, whether granting this increase 
of appropriation will hasten one hour the crushing of the 
rebellion ? 

Mr. Wright: If the great battle which is to determine 
the question whether the Government is to exist or not, is 
to be fought in Kentucky or in the vicinity of Kentucky, I 
think the time may come when we shall be very glad to 
avail ourselves of this force raised bv Kentucky. * * The 
rebellion has now assumed such formidable proportions we 
must call it war — that is its proper and legitimate name * 

* * and in its issue is involved the cause of freedom and 
the power of man for self government. 

Mr. Conway: The report of the Secretary of Treasury 
tells a fearful tale. Nearly two millions a day will hardly 
suffice to cover our existing expenditures. Eight hundred 
thousand strong men in the prime of life are abstracted 
from the laboring population to consume and be a tax on 
those who remain to work. * * Up to this time we have not 
encountered the enemy in a single engagement of import- 
ance in which we have had an unquestioned victory. 

Mr. Thadeus Stevens : I confess I do not see how, unless 
the expenses are greatly curtailed, this Government can po$* 



37 

sibly go on over six months. If we go on * * * aa 
we are doing * * * the finances, not only of the Gov- 
ernment, but of the whole country, must give way, and the 
people will be involved in one general bankruptcy and 
ruin. 

Mr. Crittenden : We are engaged now in the greatest 
war the world ever saw * * * The fall of the Roman 
empire was nothing to the civilization of the world in com- 
parison with the preservation of this great Union. * * * 
Men were never intrusted with such an issue as we are. 
* * * All other policies are insignificant in comparison 
with the rescue of our country from the perils which sur- 
round it on every side. * * * Make sure you give us 
and our posterity a homestead, before you talk about the 
smaller policies. * * * Your homestead is in question to- 
day, mine, the national existence. 

' IN THE SENATE. 

DEC. 17, 1861. 

Mr. Lane, of Kansas : I do not wish to risk a battle with 
inferior numbers — but a battle with equal or superior num- 
bers, a well contested bloody battle we must fight. This 
war cannot draw its slow length along until Spring. There 
must be a decisive stroke within the next few weeks. Gain 
a victory before Englaud send her armies and navies upon 
us, and England will not send that navy nor these armies. 
It is a victory we want aud a victory we must have. 

Mr. Grimes : This war is exceedingly oppressive upon 
that section of country in which I have the honor to reside. 
"We arethe only people of the loyal States that feels this war 
oppressively. The result is there is no money in the North- 
west. 

Mr. Browning : We are probably on the very verge of a 
rupture with one of the most powerful nations of the earth, 
whose power is to be united with the rebels in their fierce 
struggle against us. . 

IN THE HOUSE. 

DEC. 30, 1861. 

Mr. Thadeus Stevens : We see why certain leading journ- 
als in England sympathize with the South and suggest means 
to evade the blockade and kindly advise us to settle peaceably 



38 

with the rebels. * I doubt not she will use every means in her 
power to open the Southern ports. The most surprising 
thing is the impertinent interference of France. 

JANUARY 7, 1862. 

Mr. Divens : The enemies of this Government began long 
since to prepare the way for their success. * * They labored to 
create prejudices against us in Europe. They had their emis- 
saries in every capitol of.Europe to instil into the minds of the 
merchants and manufactures and traders there, the necessity in 
case of a separation, of their siding with the South and to 
show them the great advantage of opening the Southern 
ports to free trade with them — and thus the commer- 
cial and trading mind of Europe was prepared and its 
sympathies were years ngo enlisted on the side of the South 
in this struggle, that they have been secretly bringing upou 
the country. The seed thus sewn had grown, and the com- 
mercial mind of England had a strong attachment to the 
South, and strong expectations from the South. That 
state of feeling existing, every circumstance that was calcu- 
lated to provoke them against the North would be seized 
upon and uie most would be made of it. 

Mr. Kelley : I think our whole course of action or rather 
inaction invites them to declare war. * * I think the condition 
of this Capitol to-day invites war. It is environed within a 
narrow circle of two hundred thousand men in arms. And 
yet, sir, that short river which leads to the Capitol of a 
great and proud country, thus defended and encircled by 
patriot troops is so thoroughly blockaded by rebels, that the 
Government, though its army has not an adequate supply 
of forage, cannot bring upon it a peck of oats to leed a 
hungry horse. * * Call it what you may it is a sight at which 
men may well wonder. 

We have six hundred thousand men in the field. 

We have spent I know not how many millions of dollars 
and what have ire done ? What one evidence of determined war 
or military skill Jiave tee exhibited to foreign nations or to our 
own people ? * * We have been engaged in war for seven 
months. * * England djes respect power. * * Let her hear 
the shouts of a victorious army * * and England and the 
powers of the continent will pause with bated breath. 

Sir, it was said yesterday the last day had come ; * * my 



39 

heart has felt the last day of our dear country was rapidly ap- 
proaching. Before we have achieved a victory we have reached 
bankruptcy. We are to-day flooding the country with an 
irredeemable currency. In ninety "day 3, with the patriot- 
ism of the people paralyzed by the inaction of our great army; 
* * the funded debt of the country will depreciate with a 
rapidity that will startle us. In ninety days more, * * the 
nations of the world will, I fear, be justitied in saying to us: 
" You have no more right to shut up the cotton fields of 
the world by a vain and fruitless endeavor to reconquer the 
territory now in rebellion than China or Japan has to wall 
themselves in." And in the eyes of international law, in 
the eyes of the world, and I fear in the eyes of impartial 
history they will ha justified in breaking our blockade and 
giving to the rebels means and munitions of war. * * But, sir, 
in less than ninety dctys to come, back to the point of time, 
we shall be advancing iu the month of April when North- 
ern men will begin to feel the effects of heat in the neigh- 
borhood of Ship Island and the mouth of the Mississippi. 
Looking at the period of ninety days, I say it is not a double 
but a triple-edged sword approaching, perhaps, the single 
thread of destiny upon which the welfare of our country 
hangs. Bankruptcy and miasmetic pestilence are sure to 
come with the lapse of that period, and foreign war may add 
its horrors to theirs. 

Mr. Wright : We are gasping for life. This great Gov- 
ernment is upon the brink of a volcano which is heaving to 
and fro, and we are not certain whether we exist or not. 

Mr. F. A. Concklinq : In this crisis of our history when 
the very existence of the Republic is threatened, when in 
all human probability the next thirty days will decide forever 
whether the Union is to maintain its place among the 
powers of the earth, or whether it is to go down and con- 
stitutional liberty is to perish. * * At this time it does appear 
to me that every effort should be made to economize the 
energies of the Treasury. 

IN THE SENATE. 

Mr. Wilson of Mass. : Why, sir, you can be borne all 
over this country upon a wave of popular murmur against 
the Government at this time, and I must say, too, in regard 



40 

to the men controlling the civil and military affairs of the 
country. * * It springs from that deep disappointment of the 
people of the country, who have poured out five hundred 
thousand men, and hundreds of millions of dollars, and who 
see no results. They see no policy in the Administration of 
the country, they see no plans — they read of no victories. 

m THE HOUSE. 

JANUARY 13, 1862. 

Mr. Dawes : Mr. Speaker, it takes $2,000,000 every day 
to support the army in the field. One hundred millions 
have thus been expended, since we met here in December, 
upon an army in repose. What they will be when that great 
day shall arrive when our eyes may be gladdened with the 
sight of the army in action I do not know. * * What 
it may cost to put down this rebellion I care very little 
provided it may be put down. * * * When the history 
of these times shall have been written, it will be doubtful 
on whom the guilt will rest most heavily, upon him who 
conspired to destroy, or upon him who has proved incom- 
petent to preserve the institutions bequeathed to us by our 
fathers. * * * Amid all these things, is it strange the 
public Treasury trembles and staggers like a strong man 
with a great burden upon him ? 

Sir, that man beneath an exhausted receiver, gasping for 
breath, is not more helpless to-day than the Treasury of this Gov- 
ernment. * * * Without income from your custom- 
houses, from your land sales, from any source whatever, to 
sustain the Treasury note3 you are now issuing, they are 
already beginning to fall in the market. Already they are 
sold at five per cent, discount at the tables of the money- 
changers — six per cent, my friend near me says. * * * 
Sixty days of the present stale of things will bring about a consum- 
mation. It is impossible for the Treasury of the United 
States to meet this state of things sixty days longer, and an 
ignominious peace is upon this country and at our very doors. 

JANUARY 14, 1862. 

Mr. Julian : In the opinion of many the great model 
republic of the world is in the throes of death. This is one of 
the grand judgment days of history. * * Mr. Seward in his 
letter to Mr. Clay, of May 6th, admits that u the object of this 
rebellion is to create a nation built upon the principle that African, 



41 

slavery is a blessing, to be extended over this continent at whatever 
sacrifice..'''' * * We are still in eminent peril of foreign war. * * 
What is it that has callecl into deadly conflict from the walks 
of peace, more than a million of men. brethren and kin- 
dred, and the joint heirs of a common heritage of liberty. * * 
The solemn issue of life and death must be disposed of upon 
its merits. * * Lithe beginning neither the Administration 
nor the people foresaw the magnitude of this struggle. 

JANUARY 15, 18G2. 

Mr. Morrill: Unless we propose to ignominionaly back 
down from the vigorous prosecution of the war, every man 
I suppose in this House will vote in favor of the resolution. 
This resolution is to assure the country which has an 
impatience wdiat is becoming chronic, that whatever the army 
may be doing, the Committee of Ways and Means have 
not hutted nor gone into winter quarters. 

Mr. Wadswoutii : There are two dangers which threaten 
the Union. One is a foreign war — the other dissensions 
among its friends * * Foreign war would possibly secure 
the present position of the rebellious States. * * Its 
worst effect would be to fix their boundaries where they 
now stand. * * 

Mr. Campbell: How long will it be, in the judgment 
of this House, before a hostile foe will strike at the commerce 
of this country on the high seas? * * How long will it be 
before she attempts to drive our commerce from the ocean ? 

Mr. Crittenden : We are guarding against a foreign war by 
these appropriations. * * We have a more formidable and 
more important war. * * It is waged in the heart of the coun- 
try, and the life of the country depends upon it. * * We have not 
money enough to carry on the war * * which demands of us 
the defense of our country and our whole government. 

Mr. Lovejoy : Nothing in the future, if we can prophecy 
that which will come to pass and from indications of the 
preseut, than that we shall need protection against foreign 
powers. 

JANUARY 20, 1862. 

Mr. Wright: There is one great abiding and powerful 
issue to-day, and that is the issue whether the country and the 
Constitution shall be saved, or whether it shall be utterly and 



42 

entirely annihilated. With Pennsylvania it is a question of 
national existence of life or death. * * The great heart of 
Pennsylvania is beating to-day for the cause of the Union ; 
* * it is to decide the great question, whether the liberty 
which has been handed down to us by our fathers shall be 
permitted to remain in the land, or whether chaos and deso- 
lation shall blot out the country and Government forever. 

IN THE SENATE. 

JANUARY 22, 1862. 

Mr. Wade: But, sir, though the war lies dormant, still 
there is war, and it is not intended that it shall remain in 
this quiescent state much longer. The committee to which 
I have the honor to belong are determined * * that it shall 
move and move with energy. If Congress will not give us 
or give themselves power to act with efficiency in war, 
we must confide everything to the Executive Government, 
and let them usurp everything, if you would not fix your 
machinery so that you might advise with me and act with 
me, * * * I would act independent of you, and you 
might call it what you please. 

This is for the suppression of the rebellion, and the meas- 
ures that we are to sit in secrecy upon look to that end and 
none other. No measure rises in importance above that con- 
nected with the suppression of this rebellion. * * We stand 
here for the people, and we act for them. * * There is no 
danger to be apprehended from any secrecy which, in the 
consideration of war measures, we may deem it proper to 
adopt. It is as proper for us as it is for the general in the field, 
as it is for your Cabinet ministers to discuss matters in 
secret when they pertain to war. 

Mr. Garrett Davis : Secession now has reduced your 
Republic, its power, its character, and its moral influence to 
contempt all over the world. This Government is struggling 
for its existence — it is a life and death struggle, whether its laws 
be executed or not. * * The people will give their blood and 
their lives to carry on this war, longer than they will give 
their money, but will eventually become tired of both con- 
tributions. * * No man has been able to say whether to-morrow's 
sun would shine upon the re-establishment or the dissolution of the 
Union, and whether the Government w T ould ever rally the 
energy, and power, and means, and men enough to recon- 
struct it. 



43 
IN THE HOUSE. 

JANUARY 22, 1862. 

Mr. Thadeus Stevens : The enemies of free Government 
predicted with the utmost confidence the overthrow of this 
Union by internal dissensions. * Eighty years of unexampled 
prosperit}' seemed to belie their predictions. We were 
establishing on a firm basis the great truths proclaimed by our 
fathers. * * If we meet and conquer in this dreadful issue, 
it will produce benefits which will compensate for all it costs. 
It iv ill give to this nation centuries of peace, and constitutional 
freedom. * * They have a vast country to overrun. ** Every 
means in the power of nature must be exhausted before our 
sacred duty is abandoned. * * If the Government submits it * * 
loses its character and ceases to be a power among the nations of the 
earth. * * If no other means were left to save the Republic, 
I believe we have the power * * to declare a dictator without 
confining our choice to any officer of the Government. 
Rather than the nation should perish, I would do it. Rather 
than see the Union dissolved — nay, rather than see one star 
stricken from its banner — I would do i( now. ::: * Remember 
that every day's delay costs the nation $1 ,500,000 and hun- 
dreds of'lives. * * "What an awful responsibility rests upon 
those in authority. T l>o ir mistalces may bring mourning 
upon the land and sorrow to many a fireside. * * " If we can- 
not save our honor, save at least the lives and treasure of the 
natiou." 

m THE SENATE. 

JANUARY 28, 1862. 

Mr. Wilson, of Mass. : We have assembled large armies. 
It is expected that these armies are to move. The public 
voice demands action. They have to move over large spaces 
of country; railways must be a great means of tranporta- 
tion for them. * * The object is to concentrate our forces 
* * without the knowledge or consent of anv'oodv, or letting 
these troops know where they are to go, or how many are to 
go. * * The purpose of the Government in wishing to have 
power over the railways of the country is, to be enabled to 
move the armies of the United States during the next few 
months; * * to move them by the will of the Government, in 
such numbers a3 it pleases and where it pleases. * * 



44 

Mr. Wade : The Secretary of War does not want to take 
possession of these railroads permanently, but for certain 
expeditions, to give energy to the Department, to give 
efficiency to the cause. * * One of our undoubted powers is 
to seize all the railroads in this nation if the Government 
wants them for transportation of troops and munitions of 
war. * * All I want is to regulate by law that power the 
Executive already has. * * Look at the complaints against 
the President because he has undertaken to suspend the 
habeas corpus. * * I justify the President in all he has done, 
because he acted from an over willing necessity. 

Mr. Garrett Davis : I have in my imagination fancied 
this Union subsisting for a thousand years, extending 
through the centuries that numbered the history of Car- 
thage, of Rome, and of the modern kingdoms of France and 
England. It was to me the most grievous disappointment 
* * that ibis Union in the first century after the founda- 
tion of the Government it should be broken up. * * I still 
cherish the hope that we shall bring 'back this Union, and 
place it upon the firm foundation it occupied before these 
Southern discontents rocked it to its basis. 

IN THE HOUSE. 

JANUAEY 28, 1862. 

Mr. Spalding : VJc. were never in greater peril than this mo- 
ment. * * But, sir, I will not, I dare not, I hope none of us 
will shrink from the responsibility of performing every duty 
devolved en us in this great crisis of our national affairs. The 
bill before us is a war measure — a measure of necessity and 
not of choice * * to meet the most pressing demands 
upon the Treasury to sustain the army and navy until they 
can make a vigorous advance ** and crush the rebellion * * 
extraordinary means must be resorted to, in order to save 
our Government and preserve our nationality. * * This bill 
is a Government measure. * * By the time the Secretary of 
the Treasury can get these notes engraved, printed and 
signed ready for use, all other means at his command and 
in" the Treasury will be exhausted. This measure then is 
presented under the highest prerogative of the Govern- 
ment. 

The army and navy now in the service must be paid, 
They must be supplied with food, clothing, arms, amma.nl. 



45 

tion, and all other material of war, to render them effective. 
* Uaving exhausted other means of sustaining the Govern- 
ment this measure is brought as the best that can be devised 
in the present exigency to relieve the necessities of the 
Treasury. * * With the enormous expenditures of the Gov- 
ernment, to pay the extraordinary expenses of the war,* * the 
Treasury must be supplied from some source or the Government 
must stop payment in a very few days. * * A loan put upon the 
market, in the present depressed state of the United States 
stocke, to be followed by other large loaus, is not regarded 
as a favorable mode of maintaining the Goverment at the 
present time. * * The situation of the country is now 
different from what it was two months ago. The circum- 
stances have changed, and the Secretary and Congress will 
find it necessary to conform their action to what can be done 
aud not what they would like to do were it otherwise prac- 
ticable. * * With a navy and army of six hundred 
thousand men in the field, requiring with the other expenses 
of the Government an average daily expenditure of more 
than $1,600,000. This new system of banking will not 
afford the relief in time to enable the Secretary to meet 
the pressing demands made upon him. * * The tables 
from the Census Bureau shows that the true value 
of the property, real and personal, within the United 
States is $16,000,000,000, * * this is the capital on which 
your treasury notes and bonds rest. * * Congress is clothed 
with this mighty power to sustain the nation at this time. * * 
The exercise of the power is an imperative necessity in order 
to sustain the credit of the nation at this time. * * The life of 
the nation is in peril, and all that we have, and all that we hope 
for must be devoted to maintain its existence. * * An early 
and successful advance of our armies is of the utmost importance ; 
we need such an advance to sustain the financial credit of the 
Government ; we need it to prevent foreign intervention ; we need 
it to rouse the flagging energies of the people, and above all, we 
need it to vindicate the courage and invincibility of our 
brave soldiers. 

Mr. Sheffield : It requires our coolest, ripest judgment 
to consider the means to put down this rebellion. * * 
Popular government is now on trial, and in its success is 
involved the maintenance of the Union. It would be bet- 
ter, far better that every loyal man at the North should 
be slain than that this rebellion should not be suppressed. 



46 

The generations of future centuries will look back to this 
period of our history and calculate the effect of our conduct 
upon human civilization. * * It is a matter of consequence 
to the civilized world, not only the men of this generation 
but to the men of all future times, that this Government 
ehou'd not be overthrown. Our people desire it to be put 
down. They would sooner have all their property consumed 
and every man slain on the battle field * * than submit 
to this lawless power of rebel hosts. 

JANUARY 29, 18G2. 

Mr. Gurley: When a few more months have gone by it 
would be no strange thing it' the Southern Confederacy 
should be acknowledged by foreign powers, and when that 
takes place, if ever, our Government will stand before the 
civilized world, not only humiliated, but utterly disgraced. 

* * If we would have the moral support of this world, we 
must strike boldly for victory. * * Remember thiscontest 
must close, either in the ruin of a Republic that has tilled 
the eyes of the best men of the world with admiration, and 
possibly the destruction of civil and religious liberty in 
America, * * or in the renewed stability of our cher- 
ished institutions. * * Our arm}/ has been five months get- 
ting ready for its realization. * * The people everywhere 
are imploring for and demanding active movements against; 
the rebels in the South. * * Sir. it is a serious question 
With many honest minds, whether this Congress and Government, 
and this great nation are not to-day sleeping upon a volcano, 
Murmurs deep and strong are everywhere coming up from 
the people against the inaction of our army. 

* * Meanwhile the public Treasury is being drained 
for their support ; the fleets of three powerful nations are Hear- 
ing our shores, and if our military do not rouse themselves to 
speedy action, * * these fleets may make a visit to our 
Southern coasts * * and announce to us- that cotton is an 
absolute necessity in Europe, and the blockade must con- 
tinue no longer. 

* * All this is not only possible but in the contingency 
of continued inactivity * * highly probable. But 

* * the now Secretary of War, a man who, if report speaks 
truly, is like brave Ben. Wade of Ohio, a good combination 
of old Hickory and Z.ick Taylor * * will push on the 
war with all the vigor that characterized the people in rais- 
ing so vast, so mighty an army. 



4T 

.TANUA.RY 30, 1862. 

Mr. S. S. Cox: General McClellan intended first to have 
General Buell get the Tennessee railroad; that for this end 
he has given all his energies to aid him. * * When 
General Buell took command he found his troops straggling 
and scattered. He had to gather them and concentrate and 
form them into regiments. * * I speak knowingly when I de- 
clare to this Congress and the people that no delay of Gen. 
Buell's movements are attributable to any orders from Gen. 
McClellan — on the contrary he has ordered him * * not to 
lose a day or an hour in the accomplishment of the design to 
seize the Tennessee railroad, to the end that not only shall 
Eastern Tennessee be opened to the army and Union * * 
but to the grand aim to cut off this rebel army of the Potomac, 
not alone from the line of their supplies, but from the line 
of their retreat. * * In fear for the fate of Memphis, 
Gen. Beauregard is hurried out to Columbus, Kentucky, to 
avert the Northern avalanche which impends there, while 
Buell is drawing with consummate skill his fatal line 
around the confederates, as the lines have been drawn in 
Virginia. * * Thousands of our people now regard 
witli dampened spirit and sad silence the condition of our 
country, and they are almost dismayed by our terrible present nd 
still more un propitious /attire. But what * * if the masses 
of the Union are to be quenched ? We shall lose our place 
among the nations, our relative importance on the globe, 
our physical independence, our weight in the equilibrium 
of powers, our frontiers, alliances, and geography. * * * 
These make up the immortality of a nation. * * He who 
remains silent when sueh interests are at stake is treacher- 
ous to his land and to his God. 

JANUARY 31, 1S62. 

Mr. Sargent: Had not the Trent ombroglio admitted of 
a peaceful solution, * * this day, as we sit here, the 
first blow would have been struck (by Great Britain) and 
the harbor of San Francisco sealed. * * To-day we are 
trying to provide means to pay, or secure to be paid, a debt 
of $1,000,000,000 on account of this war, of which we have 
but just commenced the first campaign. * * The hostile 
feeling towards this country which seized upon the late 
trivial affair still exists, and I say here that there is danger 



48 

of a war until * * England is incapable of giving or 
we of receiving an insult. 

FEB. 3, 1862. 

M. Wickliffe : Look, sir, at the condition of Kentucky 
at the beginning of this session. * * .Do we know how 
soon General Thomas will make an assault upon Bowling 
Greenl He will be obliged to leave a part of his army at 
every gap upon his line to prevent his rear being annoyed 
or cut off from communications. We want men from our 
own State. They know the fastnesses of the mountains. 
They know all the country, and will be better guards there 
than any others. * * We have information that General 
Beauregard and fifteen thousand of his trained bauds have 
gone to Kentucky to unite with the forces now there, 
against us. 

FEBRUARY 4, 1862. 

Mr. Bingham : Unless the people can, and will stand 
by the national credit and sustain it by such overwhelming 
majorities as to silence opposition, then the experiment of 
free representative Government must melt in the thin air. 
* * The nation's credit cannot be maintained by force 
unless the majority of the people with whom are the issues 
of the nation's life, voluntarily acquiesce in any and all need- 
ful legislation. 

Mr. Roscoe Oonkling : I was saying what the people must 
know about the use of their money. * * They simply 
want to know that the people's servants are using the 
people's money and the nation's army to hurl swift destruc- 
tion upon the nation's foes. * * Unless we appeal to the 
monied interest of the country with an adequate policy we 
can get no money, we ought not get it, we shall not deserve it. 

Debts funded or liquidated up to Jan. '62, $306,000,000 

The floating debt, 200,000,000 

The required ordinary and extraordinary, 

to July 1, 300,000,000 

$806,000,000 

This last item is at the rate of $2,000,000 per day for one 
hundred and fifty days. If $±5,000,000 a month is taken 



*9 

as a estimate, it will be $225,000,000. * * The Secretary of 
War says, that 718,512 men have taken the field. * * Every 
one of this multitude of soldiers isentitled to at least thir- 
teen dollars beside subsistence and bounties. * * There has 
been no such occasion presei red, no suck demand made Upon 
a nation during the life time of the human race. The history of 
free Government, the history of America, the history of 
Constitutional Liberty, begins or cads now. * * Our destiny 
is, without an ally in the world, with the nations banded 
against us to hold last a coutiuent in the midst of the 
greatest, guiltiest revolution the world has ever seen. 

Mr. Pike: Who knows what course this business shall 
take in the next ninety days ? With us here, it is a matter 
of guess work. We are the money partners in this Govern- 
ment concern. * * Still nobody is allowed to know any 
thing about it. * * If the plan shadowed forth by the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Cox,] who spoke * * for the 
commanding general is really to be adopted, the sooner we 
supply ourselves with the money we want the better for the 
Treasury. * * The "Anaconda" scheme * * is to sur- 
round cut off communications with the world, and wait the 
result. In the meantime disease is ( wasting our noble army, 
and uneasiness is increasing in every portion of the loyal 
States. * * The Secretary of War on whom the country now 
leans with entire confidence,I trustingly believe that his 
strong will and clear bead shall prove sufficient ** in this time 
of great distress. * * The army will respond with enthusiasm 
and victories which are the best financiers in these days, will 
be the happy result. * * The next sixty days are to be the 
nations opportunity to reassert itself. 

Mr. Wright : What is humiliating to me is that the credit 
of the nation is not able to make loans of money from for- 
eign countries. It cannot be done. * * I do not think 
there is any government in Europe that we can expect to 
make any advance to us in a loan to carry on the war. ::: * Wo 
must rely solely on our own element of strength and 
power. * * The question of liberty itself is at stake. 
* * When the people see that something is to be done, they 
will furnish their money to the Government as readily as 
they have their men. * * I think the indications are, 
especially at the War Department, that something will 
be done. * * I am sorry to say it, but there has 



50 

been a gradual weakening of the faith of the people. * * I 
want something done to convince the people that the Ad- 
ministration are in earnest, and has a definite plan which it has 
to work out. * * The time for mysterious utterances 
about a movement that is in the wind, or seen or heard or 
whispered, and gave a little hope at the time, is passed by. 

* * I do not think the Secretary of the Treasury, when 
he goes to New York, will say * * there is to be a groat 
movement within such a time, and inspire the bankers with 
the hope that the good time is coming within fifteen days, 

* * but the people want action in the Administration in 
the military department of the Government. * * llow 
and when and the mode, I say nothing about, but there 
must be action everywhere. * * The people will then be- 
come inspired with the belief that the rebellion will be put 
down before harvest, and they will pour out their money 
like water. 

IN THE SENATE. 

FEBRUARY 4, 1802. 

Mr. Morrill: Well, sir, is the Senate prepared to-day to 
say that it will enter upon an enterprise, enter upon the 
construction of mail-clad steamers designed for the prose- 
cution of this war, to have a bearing simply upon this rebel- 
lion, which are not to be completed for the next twclvo 
months? Sir, if this whole thing is not brought to an end 
in the next six months the nation will be beyond the hope of relief. 

Mr. Grimes : You all know that Great Britian has now the 
Warrior and H(ro ready for use. We were told a little 
while ago, that the Warrior was coming to our coast — a 
large immense frigate which according to naval authorities is 
a complete success, and preparations have been made for 
building a great many more. 

FEBRUARY 5, 1862. 

Mr. Siierman : It is manifest that the people of this 
country will be called upon to bear an amount of not lea9 
than §700,000,000. * * This is more than four times the 
aggregate currency of the country — it is more than the 
government of Great Britain bore in her struggle with 
Napoleon. * * It is more than any country in ancient or 
modern times has attempted to carry. There is nothing like it 



51 

in history. * * No nation ever attempted it or approached 
it, never for any length of time. 

FFURUAKT 0, 1862. 

Mr.. Sherman: That this condition of affairs is exciting 
attention abroad and at home is true. I have here an extract 
from a recent English paper, in which they speak of this 
very condition of affairs. Our friends across the water are 
now looking into all onr deficiencies, and all our difficulties. 
Here is a remarkable statement from the government organ, 
said to be owned by Lord Palmerston : 

"The monetary intelligence from America is of tho most 
important kind, national bankruptcy is not an agreeable 
prospect, but it is the only one presented by the existing 
stale of American finance." 

" What a strange tale does the history of the United 
States in the past twelve months unfold. What a striking 
moral does it not point. Never before was the world dazzled 
by a career of more reckless extravagance. Never before 
did a flourishing and prosperous State make such gigantic 
strides toward effecting its own ruin." — London Post, January 
15, 1862. 

And you all have probahly read the recent extract in the 
"London Times" in which our country is denounced in the 
most unmitigated lano-uago that is too offensive to be read in 
the Senate. 

1 merely quote these matters to show you that our financial 
condition has attracted the attention of foreign governments. 
It is an element of weakness, and they count upon it in all 
the political questions that will arise in the next sixty or 
ninety days, or the next year. They look at this vast expen- 
diture as a dangerous e'ementas a reason why we cannot succeed'm 
this contest, and as a reason why they should interfere in it. * * 
I do not show these facts which areplaiuand palpable on their 
face, in order to impair our public credit. What 1 state is 
known to qvqvv money lender in this land. There is not 
a bunk or a broker who doe3 not know these facts as well 
as I do. I do not do it for the purpose of stopping the 
prosecution of the war. * * Indeed I cannot contemplate 
tho condition of my country, if it shall be dissevered and 
divided. Take the loyal States as they now stand, and 
look at the map of the United States, and regard two 



52 

hostile confederacies stretching along for two thousand miles 
across the continent. * * Do you not know the normal con- 
dition of such a state of affairs would be eternal war, everlast- 
ing war. Two nations of the same blood, of the same lineage, 
of the same spirit, cannot occupy the same continent, much 
less stand side by side as rival nations, dividing rivers and 
mountains for their boundaries. * * Rather than yield to 
traitors or the intervention of foreign powers, rather than 
bequeath to the next generation a broken Union, and an 
interminable civil war, I would light the torch of fanaticism 
and destroy all that the labor of the two generations has 
accumulated. * * If you can show me the reason by which 
the present expenditures can be maintained by our national Gov- 
ernment y you show the means to success, to honor, to glory, 
to the preservation of the Union, and of our Government. 

Mr. Wilson of Mass : The credit of this Government is 
sinking .daily under our feet. * * Why, Mr. President, there 
was a time, and not far back, when the credit of this Gov- 
ernment stood high, when it could command its millions; 
but to-day, with $40,000,000 duo the people, of which the 
Government is unable to pay one red cent, we propose to issue 
one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of 
paper money and make that paper money a legal tender. We 
are going to spend live or six hundred millions of dollars a 
year and no one has yet pointed out the way to obtain that 
money, and it will take along process to reach it. It is in 
vain to cry up the credit of this Government, to boast of it, 
or talk of it, unless ice -perform the acts necessary to sustain and 
uphold it. If there is one thing, more than another, that 
■we need to show the people of this country, it is, that we 
are ready to make some sacrifices. 

Mr. Davis: I understand the Chairman of the Military 
Committee, Mr. Wilson, to state that the Government is 
now indebted $40,000,000, and has no means of paying it. 
I presume the Government will need in the next six months 
$800,000,000. The question is, how is the Government to raise 
this amount of money ? Sir, you cannot raise $300,000,000 
by taxation, and the Government cannot get along without it. 

IN THE HOUSE. 

FEBRUARY G, 1862. 

Mr. Tiiadeus Stevens : Congress at the extra session au- 



53 

thorized the loan of $250,000,000; $100,000,000 of this was 
taken at seven and three-tenths per cent., and $50,000,000 
of six per cent, bonds at a discount of over $5,000,000; 
$50,000,000 were used in demand notes payable in coin, 
leaving $50,000,000 undisposed of. Before the banks had 
paid much of this last loan they broke down under it and sus- 
pended specie payments. They have continued to pay the 
loan, not in coin, but in demand notes of the Government, 
* * but the last was paid yesterday, and on the same day 
the banks refused to receive them. They must now sink to 
depreciated currency. The remaining $50,000,000 the Sec- 
retary has been unable to negotiate, * * and there is now 
a floating debt of at least $180,000,000. The Secretary in- 
tended to use the balance of this authorized loan in paying 
it out to creditors in notes of seven and three-tenths; that 
becoming known, they immediately sunk four per cent., and 
had he persevered, it is believed they would have been 
down to ten per cent, discount. But even if this could be 
used, (about $40,000,000.) there would remain due about 
$90,000,000, the payment of which is urgently demanded. 
The daily expenses of the Government are now about 
$2,000,000. To carry us on to the next meeting of Con- 
gress would take $600,000,000 more, making, before legis- 
lation could be had next session, about $700,000,000 to be 
provided for. We have already appropriated $350,000,000, 
making our entire debt $1,050,000,000. 

The grave question now is, how can this large amount be raised ? 
The Secretary of the Treasury has used his best efforts to 
negotiate a loan of but $50,000,000, and has failed. 

IN THE SENATE. 

FEBRUARY 6, 1862. 

Mr. Trumbull: I will tell you what the people are clam- 
oring for. They are clamoring for action on the part of your 
armies. The Senator from Rhode Island wants to know how 
to raise money. Give us victories, tell your generals to advance. 

Gentlemen tell us there is no money and the fault is with 
Congress. Has not the Government had money? Did we 
not raise it by the hundreds of millions in July? Have you 
not had men, hundreds of thousands of them, and has not 
God Almighty given you a season for operations in the 
field, such as was never vouchsafed to a people before. * * 
Taxation will never save your country ; but it is the strong 



51 

arms and stunt hearts thnt yon want to pnt down this rebel- 
lion, and, as my friend Mr. Wade says, somebody to lead 
them. 

FEBRUARY 11,1862. 

Mr. Foster: I believe, sir, * * that our whole coast, 
our Atlantic coast, our Lake coast, our Pacific coast would 
be much better fortified and protected, by moving down the 
columns of our Army, now lying near the Upper Mississippi 
and along theOhio rivers, through the StatesofKentucky and 
Tennessee, and the States South, victoriously and triumphantly 
to the Gulf of Mexico. * * lint, sir, if tiiesc points are not very 
soon in possession of the United States forces, * * if we do 
not take possession of our Southern parrs within thirty or 
forty days, we shall need much more than the amount recom- 
mended by the Finance Committee to fortify all the exposed 
portions of our coast, * * I doubt whether eery muck more will 
protect them from foreign attack. * * Let us move our 
armies * * at the earliest moment we can, and more, (hem 
energelicrtly and successfully and these appropriations will not be 
needed. * * I think it is demonstrable that Maine is to be 
better fortified at New Orleans than at Portland, Chicago 
better at Charleston than on Lake Michigan, and Newport, 
better at Savannah and Mobile, than at the mouth of the, 
Narraganset bay. Let us place our armies and unfurl our 
flag in these Southern cities, and all these points we arc 
solicitous to protect, will be as sale as it is possible for 
human fortifications to make them. Without these we have 
not men, enough, nor money enough to defend them against the 
forces which will speedily threaten (hem. 

Mr. IIowm: It' it is not safe to publish to the country our 
own calculations as to the impoitaucc of different points on 
our coast, it may not be dangerous to lay before the coun- 
try the calculations of other powers and other Government?, 
and I should therefore like to have the Secretary read from 
the ''London Times," which 1 send to the desk: 

Extract from the London Times of January 7, 1862. 

"In the event of a renewal of hostilities which were ter- 
minated at the treaty of Client, * * the command of 
the water which separates Upper Canada from the Federal 
territories would be equivalent to a command in the field. 
* * It will be seen that the matter divides into two 



55 

periods, of which the first would be the most critical for Eng- 
land. It becomes a question therefore of the greatest import- 
ance how this superiority is likely to be determined. * * 
Up to the month of April next the. lakes may be regarded as 
inaccessible to the sea, and therefore whatever force is cre- 
ated must be created on the spot. * * As soon, however, 
as the St. Lawrence is opened there wilt be an end of our diffi- 
culty. We can then pour into the lakes sucJi a fleet of gunboats 
and other craft as will give lis the complete and immediate com- 
mand of these waters. Directly the navigation is opened 
wo can send up vessel after vessel without any restriction. 
* * The Americans would have no such resource. They 
would have no access to the lakes from the sea, and it would 
be impossible that they could construct vessels of any con- 
siderable power in the interval that would elapse before the 
ice is broken up. With the opening of spring the lakes would 
be ours, and if the mastery of these waters is indeed the mastery 
of all, we may expect the result with perfect satisfaction. * * 
On the whole, therefore, the conclusion seems clear that 
three months hence the field will be all our own, and in the 
m antime the Americans, if judiciously encountered, would not 
be able to do us much harm." 

Mr. Howe : The fact is apparent from this communication 
that in case of a war with a maritime power, and especially 
a war with England, the Northwest is that portion of the 
country which they design as the theatre of military opera- 
tions. * * Inasmuch as I had just received this extract 
from an English paper, I deemed it proper to bring the mat- 
ter to the attention of the Senate, for I deemed that one of 
the most important points to be fortified in the whole coun- 
try. It defends a portion of the country which is not only 
the granary of the nation but almost of the world. * '* 

Mr. Grimes: I do not believe they could get through, 
the Welland canal before sometime in the middle of May, 
even if the vessels were all scut before that time. * * But 
what are we going to do in the meantime if hostilities actually 
commenced, or if they were imminent. * * Are we ^oiiicr to 
stand by and fold our arms and not take possession ot the 
Welland canal ? * * The British Government has sent over 
into all the British colonies of North America some thirty thou- 
sand men. * * The Welland canal is only a few miles 
from our frontier. * * Is it expected that we will not 
not render it impassible for the British gunboats? 



56 

Mr. Fessenden : * * Does not everyone see the posi- 
tion in which we stand towards foreign nations. * * It 
is obvious to every man's mind that wo are engaged at 
present in a war, which in spite of all our endeavors to pre- 
serve peace, may bring about a collision with foreign poicers. 
If we speak of tilings at all we must speak of them as 
they are. * * It is not necessarily a threat to anybody, 

* * because we see that position and recognize it our- 
8elve3. * * Sir, while there is no man in the Senate or 
the country who more strongly desires peace with all nations 
than I do, * * I cannot shut my eyes to the fact * * 
that such things may happen, * * especially when 
the Executive itself has recommended this bill. * My 
honorable friend from Illinois says * * our armies ought to 
do something, that would be the way to raise finances, and that 
would be the way to fortify the country. We all know it. * * 
Sir, it has been said, and it is well to remember, that there 
never was such a war as this in the history of the world — 
there never teas one so difficult to carry on — there never icas one 
which extended over so great a territory upon which so many 
points were to be defended and so many attacked. * * I 
look for and believe that the results which are to be accom- 
plished even before many days, will be such as not only lo gratify 
all our hopes, but to astound (he world. * * Let us wait 
for them calmly. 

Mr. Trumbull : I thought it might be necessary to repeat 

* * the necessity of more active operations on the part 
of our army, and 1 am gratified to know from the Senator 
that we are to have more active operations, and that we 
we are to have movements which will astonish the country and the 
world. I rejoice at it, but I believe we may learn something 
from the past. * * That we have suffered one summer 
to pass away, and one fall to pass away, and one winter to 
pass away, at an expense of $500,000,000 to the country, 
without doing anything. I think it is our duty to see that no 
more seasons shall come and go without more efficient action. 

FEBRUARY 12, 1862. 

Mr. Howe; Either the treasury must be replenished or 
the war must be abandoned. The war cannot be abandoned. 

* * The Government is not gambling for empire, it is 
defending Us own existence. * * Sir, if this Government 
lives, if the nation survives the perils which now beBet it, 



5? 

every man knows that the stocks of the United States * * 
will in a few years command a large premium. * * * 
I have said that no one can suffer if the nation survives (he 
struggle in which it is now engaged. But the statement suggests 
the possibility that the Government mag not survive. What 
then, it may be asked, will become of the money loaned and 
the notes outstanding? I confess my apprehension that 
they will all be lost. That, I apprehend, will be the ease too 
with notes and money generally, let who ever will be the 
maker, let whoever will be the borrower. 

Mr. Fessenden : We have suffered ourselves in a measure 
to be cast down. Time has come around, * * and every- 
thing looks as favorable to our cause as the heart of man could 
desire. 

Mr. Chandler : From this day forth we can close the 
war in sixty days by an advance of our armies, and I believe 
the time has now arrived when we will advance our armies, 
and when the vvar will be brought to a close within sixty 
days. * * The time has arrived when this rebellion is within 
our grasp. 

IN THE HOUSE. 

FEBRUARY 19, 1862. 

Mr. Pomeroy: Our army, concerning whose seeming in- 
activity so many unkind words have been spoken on this 
floor in the past few months, has practically ended the war. 

Mr. Diven : The times are auspicious. * * One good 
reason urged in favor of that policy was, that the people 
were discouraged from want of success in our army. We have 
now the encouragement of success. Only let the monied men of 
the country know that the Government is to succeed in putting down 
the rebellion, and we will not have to plead for credit:. It is 
not gold and silver that we want. It is not things that are to 
be taken for gold and silver that we want. It is credit, it is 
confidence on the part of men ivho have money to lend, and who 
can lend it to the Government xoith the assurance that it will be re- 
turned to them. This is all that is wanted. And now, in 
view of the brilliant prospect before us for a speedy termina- 
tion of the rebellion, in heaven's name let us leave no 
national dishonor to remain a stain upon the country. 

Mr. Gooch: The relations of this committee (Conduct of 



53 

the War) with the President, Secretary of War, and all] the offi- 
cers of the Cabinet, are of the most cordial nature. * * 
Bowling Green, Fort Henry, and Fort Douelson, are only 
the beginning of the chapter which is to be the last in the history of 
this rebellion. * * If there is any department in which 
this committee have felt a deeper interest than any other, it 
is the department in which the gentleman from Kentucky 
is specially interested. 

Mr. Roscoe Conckling : I believe the creation of this com- 
mittee has been instrumental, with other kindred agencies, 
in bringing about valuable reforms, which have inaugurated 
beneficial changes and a vitalizing policy, without which we 
might not have had the victories which millions to-day ap- 
plaud. 

m THE SENATE. 

FEBRUARY 24, 1862. 

Mr. Doolittle: We go into this struggle with all the 
energy which God Almighty has given us. The recent vic- 
tories give earnest of speedy results, but let us rejoice with 
trembling. The results of battles none but God can fore- 
see. While we have reason to hope that our flag will soon 
wave at Savannah, at Memphis, at Nashville, and at New 
Orleans, let us remember we have met reverses before, and 
let that remembrance chasten our rejoicing. 
APRIL 18, 1862. 

Mr. Howard: Our campaigns have been planned and car- 
ried out by the President, aided by his ordinary advisers and hia 
subordinate military officers. * * The Government of the 
United States has witnessed what no monarchy ever wit- 
nessed. It has coped with the most formidable rebellion in the 
history of world, one which no monarchical government since the 
dawn of history, could have stood six weeks. 
APRIL 21, 1862. 

Mr. Collamer : For myself, without any prophetic vision, 
and I do not think now it needs any, I believe I can see the 
the coming result, and its developments may be seen in the 
progress of our armies, and the necessary consequence which 
follow them. 1 see the masters dispersed, I see the slaves scat- 
tered, I see that in all probability they will never be reclaimed no 
matter what laws we may make. I see the further that progress 
goes, the more extended will be its effect. 



59 

IN THE HOUSE. 

MAY 2, 1862. 

Mr. Washburne ; But to the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing. * * That battle has laid the foundation for finally driv- 
ing the rebels from the South West. * * History will record 
it as one of the most glorious victories that has ever illus- 
trated the annals of a great nation. 
MAY 26, 1862. 

Mr. Gurley : That the idea of intervention in our affairs 
has been seriously entertained by the English and French 
governments, there can be no reasonable doubt. * * Thanks 
to our sagacious President for dividing the army at the 
critical moment, and ordering all the commanders to advance 
on the enemy. This defeated Southern recognition, for the re- 
sult was a succession of victories in the West, which saved 
our Government from so great a humiliation. * * As I 
have said the signal success of our arms in the West, that im- 
mediately followed the action of the President made recog- 
nition impossible. 

IN THE SENATE. 

JULY 15, 1862. 

Mr. Henderson: The object of the rebels in the begin- 
ning was to build up a confederacy of the cotton States. * * 
Why did they pretend that they desired the border States 
to go with them? To make us, in the language of Mr. 
Yancey, fortifications for them; * * to keep armies * * 
in the border States; * * and by the time their armies 
were conquered * * our financial condition would be such 
that we would be compelled to acknowledge their independence. 
They hoped that by the destruction of their own cotton, which 
they thought would regulate matters in Europe, and by keeping our 
armies at bay in the border States, * * that could builJ 
up a confederacy commanding the mouth of the Mississippi. w 
the Gulf of Mexico, the southern Atlantic, and the great rivers of 
the West. 

Mr. Doolittle : * * We have recovered our rightful 
supremacy over territories larger than the kingdoms tu'at 
talk about intervention from Europe — larger than the king- 
dom of France, three times as large as Gi oat Britain — dur- 



60 

ing which we have opened the great valley of the Mississippi, 
that river which more than all things binds this Union together. 
As long as we hold the Mississippi from its source to its mouth, 
this Union cannot be dissolved. New England may regard 
southeastern Virginia, this side of the Allegany mountains 
and North and South Carolina, as of very great importance. 
Why, sir, if we were ten years in subjugating that country 
to the supremacy of the Constitution, it would be as nothing 
compared to the 'holding of the valley of the Mississippi to the 
Gulf of Mexico, thus 'binding the Union together from north to 
south. ' * * The history of the world has never shown 
such a parallel. 

JULY 16, 1862. 

Mr. Ciiandler : On the 1st day of January, and for months 
previous to that date, the armies of the Republic were occupy- 
ing a imrehj defensive position upon the whole line from Missouri 
to the Atlantic until or about the 21th of January, when the 
President and Secretary of War issued the order " forward. " 
Then the brave Foote took the initiative, soliciting two 
thousand men from Iialleck to hold Fort Henry after he 
had captured it with his gunboats. 



WHAT PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND MR. SEWARD THOUGHT 
OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

[From the Neio York Evening Post, February 9, 1862.) 

" The President stated yesterday that the recent victory 
of Fort Henry was of the utmost importance, and was 
intended to be followed up immediately with a blow on the 
railway connection fifteen miles from the captured fort, 

* * that hot work was expected in that region at once, 

* * the victories the Government expected fowin over the rebels 
in the next two months would put to flight all thoughts of (Eng- 
land and France) meddling in our affairs." 

President Lincoln on the 10th of April, 1863, issued the 
following proclamation : — 

" It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal vic- 
tories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing 
an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from ov r r, 
country the dangers of foreign intervention ana] invasion" 



61 

Mr. Seward, March 6, 1863, to Mr. Dayton, said : 
"It is now apparent that we are at the beginning of the 
end of the attempted revolution. Cities, Districts, and 
States are coming back under federal authority." 

Again, May 7, 1862: 

" The proclamation of commerce which is made, may be 
regarded by the maritime powers as an announcement that th& 
Republic has passed the dangers of disunion." 



APPENDIX 2 . 



DEBATE ON THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAN OP THE TENNES. 
SEE CAMPAIGN. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE. 

FEBRUARY 24, 1862. 

Mr. Roscoe Conckling : ,1 beg leave to offer a resolution, 
not for action at present, but that it may lie on the table, 
as follows: " That the thanks of Congress are due and are 
hereby presented to Generals Halleck and Grant for planning 
the recent movements in their respective divisions, and to both 
those generals, as well as the officers and soldiers under 
their command, for achieving the glorious victories in which 
those movements have resulted." 

Mr. Roscoe Conkling : My purpose in offering the reso- 
lution, and asking that it may lie over without action now, 
is this: I desire that those who cam military honors shall wear 
them, and wear all that honor to which, they are entitled. I be- 
lieve the officers named in this resolution are entitled to 
certain credit, and I desire the resolution to await future 
action, perhaps amendment, and I care not what particular 
disposition is made of it for the present. I would like to 
call up this subject when the House and the country shall 
be in full possession of ail the facts in the case, including 
reports to be made by different generals, and when we shall know 
whether these victories were organized or directed at a distance from 
the fields where they were won, and if so by whom organized, or 
whether they were the conceptions of those who executed 
them. 

Mr. Cox : I should have no objection to this resolution, 
but I think that it should be a little more extensive. It 
seems to be a matter of opinion with genilrmrn as to icho designed 
these victories. I understood the gentlemen from New York 
the otter day, to giyQ a great deal of the credit to tbe 



63 

" Committee on the Conduct of the War." Perhaps the 
gentlemen will include that in his resolution. One thing 
is certain, Mr. Speaker, that these resolutions of thanks to 
our officers ought to he very carefully drawn and very care- 
fully considered to the end that no one entitled to credit should 
be excluded from them. I hope,- therefore, the gentleman will 
do no injustice to any of those who may be entitled on further 
examination to the credit for these victories. 

Mr. Roscoe Concklino : I am very glad the gentleman from 
Ohio has referred to a remark which fell from me the other 
day. The remark I made then, and am very glad to repeat 
now was this, that to that committee, along with other kin- 
dred agencies, in which I include the action of the President 
of the United States and of the present Secretary of War as 
well as of Congress, were due most vitalizingand important 
reforms, without which the recent victories might not have 
been achieved. I will take occasion to say now that I 
venture to predict the truthful history of these victories 
will demonstrate that not alone to the mode of doing things, 
nor to the sources of movements which until recently pre- 
vailed in military affairs, not alone to the agencies which 
were at work when Congress met, not by any means to 
these alone are to be attributed the brilliant successes in the 
West I will hazard the opinion that time will show the 
value of more recent causes, with a vigorous exercise of 
power which long lay dormant, itself in harmony with a long- 
ing for results and for action, and which has shown itself in 
debates and proceedings here, and in auxious expression of 
the people and the press, in every loyal portion of the 
country. The great necessity of the occasion, the 
need and the fitness of something more than vague as- 
surances for the future has inaugurated action — resolute 
onward action — and to this inspirited policy is due move- 
ments which have culminated in glorious success. I do not 
believe the recent movements in the West are a part of any 
long existing plan conceived elsewhere, and only now un- 
folding itself. I do not believe these victories were ar- 
ranged or won by men setting at a distance engaged in what 
is termed " organizing victory." My belief is, that 
they have been achieved by bold and resolute men left 
free to act and to conquer. 
* * Like him, 1 should be very unwilling to withhold from Qt 



u 

single general or officer, be he high or low, a morsel of the credit he 
deserves, and my purpose in offering the resolution and ask- 
ing that it lie over until a future day, is, that Congress and 
the country may discriminate and award just praise by awarding it 
to those who have earned, it. I want to crown with heroic honors 
the real heroes of this war, and I should be very glad to have 
the resolution embrace every general and every officer and 
private who should be included — and my object will be 
accomplished if the great honor belonging to the blows 
lately struck on the Western rivers and their banks shall 
be conferred where it belongs and shall not be appropriated or 
absorbed by any person whatever who has not earned it. 

Mr. Fenton: I have drawn very hastily an amendment 
to the resolution how before the House, which I think em- 
braces the idea which my colleague has just suggested. I 
offer it, " that the thanks of Congress be tendered to the 
officers and soldiers who have rushed to arms to sustain the 
fabric which our fathers erected, and whose devotion has 
been alike conspicuous, whether in the camp or in the field, 
whether by that cheerful patriotism and unwearied ardor to 
be led to the face of the enemies of our country, or their 
matchless valor in contest." 

Mr. Roscoe Cockling: I should be {very unwilling to 
thwart, if I could, any desire my colleague may have, but 
I submit to him, and I think he will agree with me, that 
the amendment he proposes is an entire transformation of my 
resolution and destructive of its object. I mean by the re- 
solution to secure the action of the House, if possible, at the 
proper time, in awarding the meed of praise and credit due to the 
meu entitled, not only to the achievement of these victories, 
but for the planning and conception of the movement which led to 
them. 

Mr. Washburn, of Illinois : There is certainly no man 
here who would withhold his thanks from the two distin- 
guished officers named in that resolution. I feel a peculiar 
interest in one of them. General Grant, a man I may say 
here, who is as brave as he is modest and incorruptible. But 
there are other generals who were upon the field and whom 
we may wish to thank in the same connection. There i3 a 
gentleman who served with us in the last Congress, and in 
a portion of the present Congress who was upon that battle- 
field nobly doing his duty, General John A. McClernaud, 



65 

There is another gentleman a memberof the House, I mean 
Colonel Logan, who distinguished himself gloriously and 
fell wounded upon that field. And yet there are still other 
brave officers who were there who should not be forgotten. 

Mr. Roscoe CoNCKLiNflf: I took pains in drafting the Q^-l 

resolution, though I did it hastily, to so restrict its terms 
that it could not be at all open to the criticism suggested by 
the gentleman from Illinois. The resolution declares the 
thanks of Congress due to those two generals for the move- 
ments planned in their respective divisions, not departments, 
the expression is a departure from strict military phraseology, 
I believe, and employed to confine the resolution to the acts 
actuall}' done by those named. It was far from my inten- 
tion to exclude from the thanks to bo presented any person 
who was participant in these movements, and who may 
properly be included in the resolution. 

Mr. Cox: This resolution selects only two of the generals 
engaged in the recent conflict at Fort Donelson. Generals 
Halleck and Grant. If, sir, there are any generals entitled to 
credit for success in that great conflict, General Smith of 
Pennsylvania, and our recent associate, General McClernand 
of Illinois, than whom no braver or truer soldier adorns the 
army of the West, are entitled to an equal degree of the 
glory, and an equal consideration in the thanks of Congress. 

Mr. Holman : I do not want General Wallace to be de- 
prived of his just share of the credit. 

Mr. Mallory : Xor should General Buell be forgotten. 

Mr. Cox : A splendid list could be made of officers of the 
army and navy who are entitled to credit for our recent 
victories. * * The gentleman says he does not believe 
in organizing victory at a distance. It may turn out when 
the matter comes to be examined, and fire shall have burned 
through the smoke, that other generals besides those men- 
tioned — that the General-in-Chief in this city is entitled to 
some credit, at least for his foresight, design, and strategy, 
which have so signally contributed to the recent gallant 
achievements of our army and navy. It is significant of one 
directing head and design in these recent victories, that both 
flanks of the enemy, west and east, have been stricken and 
paralyzed at the same time. * * Lzt us no', by prejudging 
this matter, do injustice to any officer of the army and navy. Let 



66 

the Committee on Military Affairs have this resolution as 
they have other resolutions, and let them report a proposi- 
tion to the House, which will discriminate fairly and justly 
between the different officers, giviug to those who are en- 
titled, not inconsiderately, but with deliberation and care, the 
merited thanks of the National Legislature. 

Mr. Kellogg, of Illinois: I profess to be as justly proud 
of the victories secured by western generals and western 
soldiers as any man on this floor, but in our exaltation of 
great joy over these victories we should be very careful to prevent 
any injury being done through our action to any portion of the 
army or to any general engaged in fighting the battles of the 
Union. * * We have soldiers in the ranks fit to be 
generals. Many such have sacrificed their lives to purchase 
the victories we have obtained. * * But, sir, we should 
not forget to do justice to all — in other \vords,we should re- 
frain from even indirectly doing injustice to the Commanding 
General of the American Army. 

Mr. Olin : Those who oppose the resolution offefed by my 
colleague seem entirely to misapprehend the object with 
which that resolution was offered. * * Its objects seems to 
be to ascertain who it was that planned and directed the military 
movements which resulted recently in glorious victories in Kentucky 
and Tennessee. * * * * 

If it be the object of the House before passing a vote of 
thanks to ascertain ivho was the person who planned and organ- 
ized these victories then it would be eminently proper in my 
opinion to request the Secretary of War lo give us that 
information. That would satisfy the gentleman and the 
House directly as to who was the party who planned these mili- 
tary movements. * * It is sufficient for the country ', for the 
present, that somebody has planned and executed these military 
movements, * * still if the gentleman has any desire to know 
who originated these movements, he can ascertain that fact by in- 
quiring at the proper office, for certainly some one at the War 
Department must be informed on the subject. The Secretary of 
War knows whether he had anything to do with them or not — the 
Commanding General knows whether he had anything to do with 
them or not — if neither of them had anything to do with them 
they will cheerfully say so. 

Mr. Kellogg, of Illinois : In my judgment this resolu- 
tion, whether so designed or not, is an attack upon the Com- 
manding General of the United States Army. It ia de- 



ft 

dared in express terras by this resolution that the achieve- 
ments by oar arms in the "Western Department were the 
result of movements planned, organized, and carried out by a 
subordinate officer of the General Government. It will be re- 
membered that subordinate officers by law are under the 
control and command of the Commander-in-Chief of the 
American army, and that if there is no general plan, that there 
ought to be a general plan and system of campaign calculated and 
designed to put down this rebellion. I believe there is emanat- 
ing from the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, 
through his first subordinates, and by them to the next, and 
so continuously down to the soldiers who tight upon the bat- 
tle-field, a well-digested, clear , and definite policy of campaign, that 
is to be put in motion — that is in motion to put down this rebel- 
lion ; and when a resolution, directly or indirectly, intimates 
while this should bo the case, that it is not the case, and 
that a subordinate officer has sprung into life and conceived, 
independently of the military organization of the Govern- 
ment, a campaign and a movement, although resulting glo- 
riously — I say that that is asserted in a declaration, it is a 
direct charge — I do not say it was intended — that these 
proper campaigns and necessary movements were not and 
have not been conceived and put in execution by the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of our armies. It is detracting from the 
Geueral in command of the whole force that which should 
be meted out to him if in fact he has planned and organized 
these movements; and I believe here, and I here declare 
that I believe, that the system of movements that has cul- 
minated in glorious victories, and which will soon put down 
this rebellion, finds root, bruiu and exeoution in the Com- 
manding General of the American army and the Chief Ex- 
ecutive of the American people, and I would not, by passing 
this resolution, detract one iota from what he has fairly 
earned, if this be true, which I believe is true. 

Therefore I am opposed to the resolution not from any 
disrespect to Generals Ilaileek and Grant, for they have been 
thanked by the Commander-in-Chief, by the Secretary of 
War, and more than that by the heartfelt thanks of the 
American people — a higher tribute than can emanate from 
any men in position however high that may be. 

FEBRUARY 25, 1862. 

Mr, Thadeus Steves^ : I rise to a privileged question. I 



desire to have entered a motion to reconsider the vote by 
which the joint resolution tending the thanks of Congress to 
Generals Halleckand Grant, was referred to the Committee 
on Military Affairs. 

The motion was entered. 

MAY 2, 1862. 

Mr. Washburne : In time came the operations up the 
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, and I state what I know. 
By a singular coincidence, on the 29th day of January last, 
without any suggestion from any source, General Grant 
and Commodore Foote, always acting in entire harmony, 
applied for permission to move up these rivers, which was 
granted. The gun boats and land forces moved up to Fort 
Henry. After that fort was taken it was determined to 
attack Fort Donelson. The gun boats were to go round 
and up the Cumberland river, while the army was to move 
over land from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson. 

IN THE SENATE. 

MARCH. 13 1862. 

Thanks to Captain Foote. 
" Be it resolved, ***** t h at t y 1Q 
thanks of Congress and of the American people are due and 
are hereby tendered to Captain A. II. Foote of the United 
States navy, and to the officers and men of the Western 
flotilla under his command, for the great gallantry exhibited 
by them in the attacks upon Forts Henry and Donelson, for 
their efficiency in opening the Tennessee, Cumberland, and 
Mississippi rivers to the pursuits of lawful commerce, and for 
their unwavering devotion to the cause of the country 
amidst the greatest difficulties and dangers." 

Mr. Grimes : A great deal has been said of the origin of the 
proposition to take possession of the Tennessee river. The credit 
of originating the idea of a military campaign in that direction 
has been claimed first for one and then for another military com- 
mander. I desire that impartial justice should be done to 
every man * * so far as I can learn the project of turn- 
ing the enemy's flanks by penetrating the Tennessee and 
Cumberland rivers originated with Commodore Foote. 
The great rise of water on those rivers was providential, and 



60 

with the quick eye of military genius he saw the advantagd 
it might secure to our arms. Accordingly he sent to Gen- 
eral Halleck at St. Louis, the following dispatch : 

" Cairo, January 28, 1862. 
" General Grant and myself are of opinion that Fort 
Henry on the Tennessee river can be carried with four iron- 
clad gunboats and troops, and be permanently occupied. 
Have we your authority to move for that purpose when 
ready ? 

"A. H. FOOTE." 

To this dispatch no reply was vouchsafed, but an order 
was subsequently sent to General Grant to proceed up the 
Tennessee river, under convoy of the armed flotilla, and at- 
tack Fort Henry, directing General Grant to show Commo- 
dore Foote his orders to this effect. 

Commodore Foole was at once ready for the expedition, 
and advised the Department to that effect in the following 
dispatch : 

" Paducah, February 3, 1862. 

" To-day I propose ascending the Tennessee river with 
the four new armored boats and the old gunboats, * * in 
convoj 7 of ihe troops under General Grant, for the purpose of 
conjointly attacking and occupying FoH Henry and the railroad 
bridge connecting Bowling Green and Columbus. 

"A. H. FOOTE." 

After reducing Fort Henry and sweeping the Tennessee 
river as far up as Florence, Alabama, Commodore Foote 
returned to Cairo to prepare * * for operations against 
Donelson. * * He desired a delay of a few days to com- 
plete the mortar boats, * * but General Halleck believed 
an immediate attack to be a military necessity. Although wounded 
himself and his gunboats crippled * * he indulged in 
no repinings for bis personal misfortune. In a letter written 
the morning after the battle, to a friend, he said : * * "I 
feel sadly at the result of our attack on Fort Donelson. To 
see the brave officers and men * * fall by my side 
makes me feel sad to lead them to almost certain death." 

The next movement of his flotilla was to take Clarksville 
on the 19th of February. * * On the 21st of February, 
he telegraphed General Cullum, chief of Halleck's staff, as 
follows : 



TO 

"Paducah, February 21, 1862. 
{i General Grant and my self consider this a good time to move on 
Nashville. We were about moving for this purpose, when 
General Grant to my astonishment received a telegram from 
General Halleck, " not to let the gunboats go higher than 
Clarksville." No telegram sent to me. The Cumberland 
is in a good stage of water, and General Grant and I believe 
we can take Nashville. Please ask General Halleck if we shall 
do it." 

A. H. FOOTE." 

It may be that there was some great military reason 
why General Grant was directed " not to let the gun- 
boats go higher than Clarksville/' but up to this time, it is 
wholly unappreciable by the public. 

The next fact of importance in the campaign at the 
"West, and indeed the most important of all was the evacua- 
tion of Columbus. Why was this strong hold which costs so 
much labor and expense abandoned without firing a shot ? It 
is well understood that Commodore Foote was opposed to giving 
the rebels an opportunity to leave Columbus. He felt sure of his 
ability with his gun and mortar boats to shell them into a 
speedy surrender, but was compelled to give way to counsels 
of military commanders. * * The two arms of the public ser- 
vice are equally entitled to the credit of frightening the rebels from 
their strongest position on the Mississippi river, if not the strongest 
in their whole military jurisdiction. 

N. B. — At the time Congress was considering the ques- 
tion — who originated the idea of a miliary campaign on the line 
of the Tennessee river there were present on the floor a few 
Senators and Representatives who were aware that Miss 
Carroll, as early as the last of November, 1861, devised and 
recommended to the Government the adoption of that line of 
attack upon (he Confederacy — they having seen and read her 
plan, but, who, from prudential considerations, gave no 
publicity to their information. 



EREATTA. 
Page 2, 8th line from top, read then for " their." 
Page 11, 23d line from top, read on for " in." 
Page 18, 21st line from top, read change for " exchange." 



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